discuss: Thread: Proposal: HOWTO write a file system

Hi,
I'm a student of CE at University of Tehran;
final project of my file structure course was about
writing a file system for linux and finding out how
the kernel VFS works; for the latter subject I found
many resources on the net which were about linux
kernel and therefore about VFS as a part. But there
were nothing about "how to write a file system for
linux".
So I referred to kernel source code and after a hard
week:) soultion emerged.
I am intended to write "HOWTO write a file system in
linux", which illustrates the subject with an example,
the example FS could be a "completely new FS" which I
would design it for the HOWTO, or an already existing
simple FS like FAT.
I wait for your idea, about whole thing and about the
example.  

--
Kave Aryan
  



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

kave Aryan wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm a student of CE at University of Tehran;
> final project of my file structure course was about
> writing a file system for linux and finding out how
> the kernel VFS works; for the latter subject I found
> many resources on the net which were about linux
> kernel and therefore about VFS as a part. But there
> were nothing about "how to write a file system for
> linux".
> So I referred to kernel source code and after a hard
> week:) soultion emerged.
> I am intended to write "HOWTO write a file system in
> linux", which illustrates the subject with an example,
> the example FS could be a "completely new FS" which I
> would design it for the HOWTO, or an already existing
> simple FS like FAT.
> I wait for your idea, about whole thing and about the
> example.  

It's a very good idea. Do you know that it's possible to use 
a loop mounted file to do so? I used that on a linux course 
to make my student experiment without destroying the system :-).

create an empty file with "dd", and use it as a normal 
partition (it was two years ago, I don't remember the exact 
syntax).

With this anybody can play with your howto, an I know I will 
be pleased to do so :-).

jdd


-- 
pour m'écrire, aller sur:
http://www.dodin.net
http://valerie.dodin.net
http://arvamip.free.fr

Hi Kave,

> So I referred to kernel source code and after a hard
> week:) soultion emerged.
> I am intended to write "HOWTO write a file system in
> linux", which illustrates the subject with an example,
> the example FS could be a "completely new FS" which I
> would design it for the HOWTO, or an already existing
> simple FS like FAT.
> I wait for your idea, about whole thing and about the
> example.  

This is a nice idea, and I was thinking of writing something like this
for a while and couldn't do it for lack of time. However, don't under
estimate the effort in writing such a howto. It's pretty easy to write a
simple file system that can be mounted and has simple read/write
capability using generic functions. But, the devil is in the details. A
clear demonstration of usage of buffer cache and your own versions of
generic_file_read and generic_file_write is a tough task. I don't mean
to discourage you and please post a link to your doc to the list.

BTW, I am the author of the logfs for Linux
(http://logfs.sourceforge.net)

-- 
Pradeep Padala
http://ppadala.blogspot.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On Fri, 2 Sep 2005, kave Aryan wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm a student of CE at University of Tehran;
> final project of my file structure course was about
> writing a file system for linux and finding out how
> the kernel VFS works; for the latter subject I found
> many resources on the net which were about linux
> kernel and therefore about VFS as a part. But there
> were nothing about "how to write a file system for
> linux".
> So I referred to kernel source code and after a hard
> week:) soultion emerged.
> I am intended to write "HOWTO write a file system in
> linux", which illustrates the subject with an example,
> the example FS could be a "completely new FS" which I
> would design it for the HOWTO, or an already existing
> simple FS like FAT.
> I wait for your idea, about whole thing and about the
> example.

Hello,

You can find HOWTO templates in the Author Guide
at http://tldp.org/authors/template/Sample-HOWTO.xml

An overview of the publishing process is here:

http://tldp.org/authors/pubprocess.pdf

When you feel ready, please submit and I will find you a reviewer.

Thanks for your efforts,

Tille.

- --
Machtelt Garrels                ####@####.####
Review Coordinator    	 	http://www.tldp.org/authors/

My Penguin, my freedom.         http://tille.xalasys.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDG/G6sIIUbMXbBA8RAm0cAJ9l1PnaVYH5Ui29XqOgaiTuR2Mj2gCeMFPR
J3EUYfUvOsOa8Xqt/LMPrJk=
=AF4R
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

> > I'm a student of CE at University of Tehran;
> > final project of my file structure course was about
> > writing a file system for linux and finding out how
> > the kernel VFS works; for the latter subject I found
> > many resources on the net which were about linux
> > kernel and therefore about VFS as a part. But there
> > were nothing about "how to write a file system for
> > linux".
> > So I referred to kernel source code and after a hard
> > week:) soultion emerged.
> > I am intended to write "HOWTO write a file system in
> > linux", which illustrates the subject with an example,
> > the example FS could be a "completely new FS" which I
> > would design it for the HOWTO, or an already existing
> > simple FS like FAT.
> > I wait for your idea, about whole thing and about the
> > example.
> 
> Hello,
> 
> You can find HOWTO templates in the Author Guide
> at http://tldp.org/authors/template/Sample-HOWTO.xml
> 
> An overview of the publishing process is here:
> 
> http://tldp.org/authors/pubprocess.pdf
> 
> When you feel ready, please submit and I will find you a reviewer.

As time permits, I'd be willing to at least provide
a language review on this, and might even have some useful 
technical comments.

Cheers,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
####@####.####

GMX DSL = Maximale Leistung zum minimalen Preis!
2000 MB nur 2,99, Flatrate ab 4,99 Euro/Monat: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl