Subject: ExeterFS is dead! Long live IscaFS!

From: Phil Norman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 14:28:29 +0000 (GMT)

Hi!

I haven't fixed all the bugs in ExeterFS; I've killed it off
instead.  Since so many people were moaning about how there should be
an image filing system ext2 reader I've written one.  It's called
IscaFS and, like ExeterFS, includes full source code.  However, there
are a few differences in IscaFS:

1:	It's written in hand-coded ARM assembly language.
2:	It uses the same block cacheing method as linux does, and so
	is a little faster than the frankly snail-like ExeterFS.
3:	It is an image filing system, so you can do all those funky
	things you can do with all filing systems, and you don't need
	to worry about a bug-ridden wimp front-end.
4:	It handles floppy discs 'invisibly' (just as DOSFS handles DOS
	floppies without you noticing it).
5:	It handles ext2 partitions by using pseudo image files.  A
	program is supplied with the IscaFS release which creates them
	for you.

It also has only two bugs (AFAIK).  The first is shared with ExeterFS
in that it doesn't understand what a symbolic link is.  Double-click
on a symblink if you REALLY want to, but don't expect anything more
than toflatoflatoflatofla (I would include the real characters but
they're high ASCII, so the emailing it wouldn't work).

The second bug is a very weird one and occurs when IscaFS tries to
get the contents of a directory in response to an OS_GBPB,10-like
call.  It's probably something to do with the offset, but it's only
happened when I used my cunning IscaFS directory-contents-getting
testing method (using the FilerAction count facility).  It works for
the most part, but just occasionally goes horribly wrong.  Sometimes
it tries to read a part of the disc that doesn't exist, and sometimes
when reading directory contents it reads files that aren't there.  It
only happens occasionally, which is even worse from a debugging point
of view.

I might turn IscaFS into a read/write image filing system one day,
but first I'm going to ensure that ALL the bugs have been removed
from the read-only version.  If anyone finds a bug, PLEASE let me
know.

I hope someone finds this useful.  Bye for now,
Phil

P.S. You can get IscaFS with full source code from my web page (in
the sig).  PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU READ THE !ReadMe FILE _FIRST_.

-- 
Phil Norman, mailing from Exeter Uni.
Programs available for download from my web page.
email:  [email-masked]
web:    http://newton.ex.ac.uk/general/ug/norman

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