Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Thu, 17 Oct 1996 22:37:56 +0100 (WET DST) | From | Klaus Lichtenwalder <> | Subject | Re: "raw" block devices? |
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On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Oct 1996, David Monro wrote: > > > > Something I've been wondering about for a bit - why doesn't linux have the > > equivalent of the "raw" disk devices present on most other unixen I can think > > of (OSF, Solaris, SunOS, *BSD)? (For people who haven't seen them, the device > > name is traditionally the normal block device with a 'r' prefixed, and it is > > a char device rather than a block one). I was talking to a unix kernel guru I > > know about what they are used for, and there seem to be two things: > > The main reason there are no raw devices is that I personally think that > raw devices are a stupid idea. > [...] > Sure, there are old-fashioned databases that think they can do a better job > of it than the kernel does. They are usually wrong, I suspect. They are using > raw devices more for historical reasons than anything else, and they could > just as well use a filesystem. > Well, I definitely don't like raw devices for databases at all. First, todays kernels do a real good jobs with block devices compared to raw devices. I guess the difference was much greater in the early (earlier= days of (unix-)kernels. And I also can imagine that going to the storage device (whatever that will be) through the kernel will give me more confidence re future developments of storage devices that I can connect to my computer without having to wait for the n+1'th upgrade of that db kernel that knows how to cope with that new device.
I would prefer having a db that goes to its files via some ufs-stub than trying to reinvent the wheel for a job the kernel does already.
> There _are_ databases that successfully use filesystems for storage, and they > often have obvious advantages (like having BLOBs as separate files so that > you can actually access those satellite pictures without going through the > database etc). I agree wholeheartedly
Klaus ________________________________________________________________________ Klaus Lichtenwalder, Dipl. Inform., PGP Key: email to key@Four11.com Lichtenwalder@ACM.org, http://www.wp.com/Klaus, fax: +49-89-9829275 Need a (virtual) vacation? Go check: http://www.bavaria.com
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