On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Andrew Brown wrote:

: >- implement a real userland fs layer that can cope with lseek(2) (and isn't
: >  a hack layer over the NFS protocol as in sharity-light);
:
: i, for one, have always wondered why the portal file system didn't
: hand back descriptors that could handle a seek.  that seems (to me, at
: least) like a better thing to "fix".
:
: or maybe i'm just on crack again...  :)

Well, if the target of the portal filename is a plain file, you'll get a
seekable fd.

If you're curious, look at the guts of the portal daemon.  Portalfs isn't a
real fs in any sane sense; it's a `portal' (aptly named).  It simply goes
somewhere else to open a file, and then hands that file back to the opener.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling <tv@wasabisystems.com>  *  Wasabi NetBSD:  Run with it.
-- NetBSD 1.5.2 available on CD-ROM soon!  --  http://www.wasabisystems.com/