make DOS a filesystem?

[John F. Haugh II]

Submitted-by: jfh at rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)

In article <537 at usenix.ORG> ucbked at athena.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) writes:
>In article <536 at usenix.ORG> cazier at mbunix.mitre.org (Cazier) writes:
>>Since UNIX can support different filesystems, why wouldn't it be possible
>>to either define another file structure that would allow UNIX to read/write
>>DOS filesystems, or create some device driver that would interface with
>>/dev/DOS to read/write DOS files and directories?
>
>It not only can be done, it has been done.  SCO Xenix, for example,
>allows reading/writing to a DOS partition.  There is also a set of
>tools for doing this on other systems.

I believe what is being referred to is use of the file system switch
to support MS/DOS filesystems without the use of special tools or
emulators.  SCO Xenix has a collection of commands which are
intimately familiar with the format of MS/DOS file systems.  Thus,
to edit a file on a MS/DOS partition, I must first copy the file off
of the partition and into a Xenix file.  Then I can edit it, and so
on.  Using the System V file system switch (or vnodes, or xyznodes
or whatever ...) would allow any utility to operate on any MS/DOS
file on the MS/DOS partition without the need for copying.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                             UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832                           Domain: jfh at rpp386.cactus.org
"SCCS, the source motel!  Programs check in and never check out!"
		-- Ken Thompson

Volume-Number: Volume 21, Number 143