On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 10:56:46PM +0100, David Brownlee wrote: > > Presumably the "modern" approach would be to implement it as a layered > filesystem? (I'm not sure how much of a :) to add here...
Actually, a pseudodevice could implement STD 144 pretty easily, and thereby free actual disk drivers *and* the disklabel code from any need to do so. The only problem is that you couldn't reliably use such a disk as the root device. In my experience, DEC removable disk packs actually need this functionality, and the only ones of those that were common enough that anyone is likely to want to read them these days were the RL02 drives and packs and maybe the RK07. It looks like we have our own RL driver that didn't come from historical BSD, and unless I'm misreading, it doesn't handle remapped sectors on read. The other removable pack drives BSD traditionally supported on the VAX were the RK07 (we have no 'hk' driver), and various RM and RP series drives, as well as the CDC 97xx drives, all of which used the 'hp' massbus disk driver with various controllers. We also seem to presently have no 'hp' drivfer. I would say this agitates for simple removal of the STD 144 code, in kernel (what drivers actually use it?) and userspace. -- Thor Lancelot Simon [email protected] "The liberties...lose much of their value whenever those who have greater private means are permitted to use their advantages to control the course of public debate." -John Rawls
