Re: NeXT formatted disks (was Re: next68k port status?)

> I've lost track of whether there was actually a problem experienced
> by anyone, or merely a perceived problem.  From the newfs point of
> view (admittedly rather high-level), a disk with a filesystem
> initialized on a NeXT should be compatible with other BFFS
> filesystems.  Are there any differences?

I think there are a few, but I forget what they are.  Nothing major.
Somewhere I have source to a NeXT-filesystem-compatible fsck, which may
be of use to anyone who wants to investigate the details.

The biggest problem is that disks are addressed by sector number, which
means that the kernel and the disk have to agree on the sector size for
things to work.  For example, a kernel that assumes ½K blocks would
expect that reading 1K starting with block 0 returns the same data as
reading ½K at block 0 and ½K at block 1; a disk with 1K sectors will
return rather different data for the second half-K when accessed thus.

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       [email protected]
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B