Re: RAM disk

[Ignatios Souvatzis <ignatios%cs.uni-bonn.de@localhost>]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 11:41:13AM +0100, Nino on NetBSD 4.0 wrote:

> I tried to configure a RAM-disk on NetBSD 4.0.
> ... mount_mfs ... mdconfig ...

Different uses.

Actually, very different uses.

With mount_mfs and the more modern mount_tmpfs, you create and mount
an *empty* temporary *filesystem* in virtual memory -  that is, it's
written to your swap device on memory shortage.

mdconfig creates an instance of a memory *disk* accessed through the
device "/dev/mdN" or "/dev/rmdN" for some integer N. The alternative
is to have a memory disk inside of the kernel that is used (you fill
it with mdsetimage). You still have to create a filesystem on it and
mount that. Most often, it is used with an embedded filesystem image
that contains the installation scripts or for similar purposes.

Regards,
        -is