Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 17 Nov 1999 21:26:41 +0000 (GMT) | From | Riley Williams <> | Subject | Transparent mounts |
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Hi there.
This is just some thoughts of mine, but I'd like to hear comments on any problems with them that anybody can think of.
Basically, one facility I could use is that of being able to mount two or more partitions on top of each other and have all the files from all of the partitions available for reading. This is what I call a transparent mount.
I don't know much about how the current mounting process works, so I'm not currently in a position to try implementing this, but I intend to learn enough to do so. However, I'd like to ensure that there aren't any serious problems with the whole concept before I start.
Basically, I see it initially working such that for a transparent mount to succeed, BOTH of the following MUST be true:
1. The partition(s) being mounted over must already be mounted read-only. There is therefore no problem with where to put any newly created files on such a system since such can't be created in the first place.
2. There must not be any name clashes between the contents of the partition(s) already mounted at that point and that of the root directory of the partition being transparently mounted on top of it.
I can see that verifying this second condition would be likely to be time-consuming on some systems, so for an initial implementation, I would suggest the following additional condition:
3. The total number of entries in the common directory, when totalled from all partitions mounted thereon, must not be such as to require more than one page of storage.
Comments, please?
Best wishes from Riley.
PS: The kernel versions page is now back online at the URL below, and includes separate sublists both for each kernel series, and for each year of development.
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