Hi Alex,
since Sparc uses dcfs(7FS) "Compression file system" module
to decompress files on-the-fly when data are being read, my understanding
is that all pieces necessary to bring up the system to the point when
dcfs(7FS) can do its job must remain uncompressed
I am not sure what the critical pieces are - CC-in Jan S. who
might correct me or provide more details on this topic.
That said, I am thinking how much space we actually save in this case
(Sparc OpenSolaris installer boot archive) - '/usr' is separated
in compressed archive solaris.zlib and kernel along with drivers
is uncompressed.
If it turns out it is not significant, I think we might also consider
not to use dcfs at all, since there are also disadvantages - we are
seeing weird bugs filed from time to time against Sparc - they
are caused by the limitations of dcfs - compressed file can't be
updated. This is why 'fiocompress' attribute in Distro Constructor
Sparc manifest exists - files marked with this attribute are left
uncompressed.
Thank you,
Jan
Alexander Eremin wrote:
> While resolving this issue I found that DC includes all /kernel
> and /platform files in uncompressed list on sparc (from
> boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk).
>
> /usr/sbin/root_archive do this only for x86:
>
> compress()
>
> {
> ...
> if [ -d "$SRC/platform/i86pc" ] ;
> then
> find `cat boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk` -type
> file \
> etc
> ....
>
> else # for Sparc - only critical files
>
> find kernel platform -name unix |
> etc
> ....
>
> Also this done for drivers in /platform
>
> Naturally this increases the size of sparc's boot_archive.
> Is this right?
>
