On Thu, 25 Jul 1996 12:35:05 -0400 (EDT) 
 Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com> wrote:

 > As an idea for the future (towards that platform independence), how's about
 > support for all types of disk labels on all platforms?  Such as the ability
 > to, say, take a MS-DOG format drive, replete with FDISK style label, and
 > using it on a HP300.  Or pulling out an Amiga RDB format drive and using it
 > on a MIPS station.  (Given that binary transportation isn't necessary in
 > these examples. :)
 > 
 > I've actually had occasion to desire these things before; one thing I'd very
 > much like to do is use my Iomega ZIP drive with the IBM-format disks (which
 > have a fdisk label on them).  At the moment I'm only capable of using the
 > 'c' partition with ffs, since NetBSD-amiga and NetBSD-hp300 only recognize
 > their own disklabels. 

Indeed, I took a stab at implementing this once.  It was a little harder 
than it might seem, mostly because several ports have a MAXPARTITIONS 
value > 8.  I was at the point where my hp380 could transparently deal 
with hp300 and sun (sun3/sparc) disklabels, and had the glue for the 
rest, but none of the meat.

 -- save the ancient forests - http://www.bayarea.net/~thorpej/forest/ -- 
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
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