David Brownlee <abs@netbsd.org> writes:
> 	However that costs us more RAM as we hold a complete copy of the
> 	uncompressed ramdisk in memory. This bites on low memory machines
> 	:/ Being able to COW share pages directly from a ramdisk would
> 	solve that, but the gzipping individual files would probably be
> 	an easier gain :)

(1) if it's truly an easier gain, the UVM + UBC are broken.  I've been
pushing chuq for a while for XIP support, it's on his list to do
eventually.

(2) it's a lot more widely applicable.  think of just rom-ing a file
system image...


running gzipped files is a cute hack, and maybe even a useful one, but

	(1) except in the case of install kernels (and maybe even
	    there), I don't think it's a good idea.

	(2) a better, more general mechanism for doing it might be an
	    auto-uncompressing file system layer.


cgd
-- 
Chris Demetriou - cgd@netbsd.org - http://www.netbsd.org/People/Pages/cgd.html
Disclaimer: Not speaking for NetBSD, just expressing my own opinion.