Subject: Re: renaming /boot to /boot_
To: David Brownlee <abs@mono.org>
From: Simon Burge <simonb@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/16/1999 10:36:27
David Brownlee wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Simon Burge wrote:
> 
> > My tests involved having "boot.pmax" on the ISO filesystem and the
> > first stage trying to open that filename.  A hex dump of the start of
> > the filesystem showed only a BOOT.PMA in the directory.  Being an ISO
> > novice, I wrongly assumed that this filesystem had an 8.3 limit.
> > 
> > For the paranoid, there's the benefit that the ISO bootblocks are quite
> > a bit smaller than the ufs bootblocks.  On the pmax:
> > 
> > 	checking sizes for bootxx_cd9660... OK - 1384 bytes free
> > 	checking sizes for bootxx_ffs... OK - 392 bytes free
> > 
> > It's probably not unreasonable then to add a check that if
> > boot.${MACHINE} fails to load then to try only using the last three
> > characters of boot.${MACHINE}.
> > 
> > 
> > So, it appears that boot.${MACHINE} is now a valid option for all
> > current boot media.  Is there anyone unhappy with this naming
> > convention?
> > 
> 	Just curious, what about macppc/mac68k, sparc/sparc64,
> 	newsmips/news68k

As long as cd's are made with mkisofs's -l option this shouldn't be a
problem.  The "check only the first three chars of ${MACHINE}" would
only be for people who make their own boot cds.  Hopefully the people
who make any NetBSD release masters use the right options :-)

Simon.