[Info-vax] New filesystem mentioned

[Simon Clubley]

On 2019-05-14, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>
> I don't know how a "plug-in" filesystem works, but for the rest of the 
> comments, all I can say is "ayep".
>

Plug-in filesystems are a very elegant concept which simply does
not exist on VMS.

Basically, you can write a new filesystem and then insert it into
the Linux kernel. Your new filesystem then shows up available for
use alongside the other existing registered filesystems.

Someone has actually written an ODS-2 filesystem driver for Linux
that allows you to read ODS-2 volumes on Linux. There's no way a
third-party person could write an ext2 filesystem driver which you
could then insert into VMS and have the rest of VMS work with it.

There's an abstraction layer in Linux called the VFS which makes
this possible on Linux. You write your new filesystem against the
VFS and Linux then takes it from there.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world