I just want to ask who is currently coordinating the fat-based filesystem
drivers development. I want to port the CVF-FAT extensions, which are
a generic low-level interface for CVF (Compressed Volume File) support in
fat-based filesystems, to the latest 2.1 kernels.
You probably have heard about the dmsdos filesystem which reads and writes
Dos/Win95 doublespace/drivespace and Stacker 3/4 compressed filesystems.
CVF-FAT is planned to be the official successor. It consists of a
kernel patch that installs generic wrappers around some functions in the
fat driver, and a register_cvf function. If a CVF module is registered,
the wrappers route the low-level filesystem traffic through the CVF module.
This means that the CVF specific code (e.g. compression and decompression
routines) needn't be part of the kernel. They can be loaded as module and
just use the generic interface from CVF-FAT.
Of course, the former dmsdos filesystem has been converted into such a
module and proves that it works - at least under Linux 2.0.33.
Now I've seen lots of changes in the fat based filesystems in Linux 2.1.76,
and the code looks like the changes are not yet complete. Furthermore, they
look like the low-level interface functions fat_bread & Co. are going to be
changed. Unfortunately, this would touch the CVF-FAT idea.
So, just before I begin to do a lot of work I'd like to contact the
coordinator(s) of the fat based filesystem drivers and discuss about the
necessary interface for CVF-FAT, but I don't know who it is (are) :-).
Please mail me at gockel@sent13.uni-duisburg.de since I'm not yet
subscribed to the mailing list.
Best wishes,
and a happy new year,
Frank