ron minnich rminnich@lanl.gov writes:
On 17 Apr 2003, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
But regardless the basic question is does putting a jffs2 filesystem on the flash start to sound like a good idea? And doing things like hard coding filenames or something into the LinuxBIOS code that looks up information.
seems ok at first glance.
I'm just playing with ideas at this point. And the real question is how to put the information on the flash. Not what should be the content of the individual files. So S-expr is hopefully irrelevant to this bit of conversation. I have yet to be convinced a self describing format does not have unfortunate size overheads.
Yes, but: isn't a file system in some sense an attempt to get a self-describing format?
O.k. Lets try describing this another way: - A filesystem is needed so the data is 1) To handle the strangeness of flash chips. 2) Self describing at least on a course level.
For the CMOS I keep the data described in the LinuxBIOS table, with the actual data being stored out of line.
In some instances a binary only representation is better because the value can be directly used.
So if we are already self describing at the fs level do we need S-exprs?
In any event it is important that someplace you define what all of the kinds of data are and what they mean.
And beyond that I think size and simplicity are important. Not so important that we paint ourselves into a corner. But important enough that we keep a close eye on what we are doing.
Eric