hi,

> > 2) Let the vnconfig parse the image file and pass a hunk descriptor
> >    list to the kernel, like the following:
> > 	first block in hunk
> > 	number of blocks in hunk
> > 	offset in file for hunk data
> > 	compression method (none, zero-fill, zlib, bzip2, ...)
> 
> How many hunks would a typical image have?

  DMG images have a maximum size of 512 blocks per compressed hunk, so
quite a lot.

> Your method #3 sounds pretty attractive, as it will allow new compression
> methods to be added easily. I'm not sure it would be significantly slower.

  I was afraid that crossing the kernel <-> user space barrier on each
request would slow things down considerably.  But yes, it would be
neat to have that ability, and it is by far the most flexible.

					yours,
					dillo