Re: A translator for the MINIX file system

[Roberto Reale]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2003 at 09:27:40PM +0200, Marco Gerards wrote:
> 
> ARG, I've written (but not finished) a similar translator. Still, it
> is cool to see someone is working on this :).
> 
> Perhaps the todo list on savannah should be updated so it is known to
> everyone what is been worked on without spitting through the
> mailinglist archives... (I will propose some updates on savannah for
> the stuff I'm working on soon).
> 
  To say the truth, when I first began working at the translator, I
neglected to ascertain whether a similar project already existed,
because I only wanted to couple my first ``divings'' into the Hurd and
the diskfs library with a practical exercise of programming, and
happened to choose the MINIX file system on account of its simplicity
and vague resemblance to its distant relation the Second Extended file
system (I needed some working code to learn from, and to start with).
  I am very glad that another programmer has been working at the same
project though, and if you wish, when my code is more stable and
mature we may merge our work.
  I have found the greatest difficulty of implementing the MINIX file
system on the Hurd to be hidden in the necessity of conciliating its
huge limitations with the needs of a modern environment (e.g., the
first version of the MINIX inode reserves only 8 bits for the UID!),
and at the same time of retaining a full compatibility with older
systems.
  Therefore, there are a great many knotty points which I have been unable
to solve in a straightforward way, and such points I shall be very happy to
discuss with you.
> 
> >   Although pretty useless now, the current version of the translator
> > is to be found at
> > 
> >   http://paideia.sourceforge.net/hurd-minixfs-0.01.tar.gz
> 
> Forbidden
> You don't have permission to access /hurd-minixfs-0.01.tar.gz on this server.
> 
  I am sorry, I guiltily forgot to check the link.  Please use instead
either [1] or [2].  Also, please be aware that this is an unstable, 
mostly non-working, pre-alpha release.

Thanks,
Roberto Reale
rreale@iol.it

[1] http://paideia.sourceforge.net/index.html
[2] http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/paideia/hurd-minixfs-0.01.tar.gz?download