Re: loop with msdos

Paul H. Hargrove (hargrove@sccm.stanford.edu)
Fri, 05 Apr 1996 12:26:49 -0800


aeb@cwi.nl wrote:
> Yes, the present loop wants the same blocksize as the underlying
> file system. For Ted that was reasonable - he mainly thought of
> loop as a way to encrypt things (I think). But as it turns out loop
> is immensely useful to turn a file into a disk or filesystem,
> and for that use it is unnatural to require the block sizes to be
> the same. So, sooner or later that restriction will have to be
> removed. Fortunately, the msdos file system accepts the option
> "blocksize=1024", so you can also work with msdos file systems today.
>
> Andries

I have the same problem with the HFS filesystem, which uses
512-byte blocks exclusively. I once patched the loop device driver
to honor set_blocksize() calls but I think I lost the patches when
I upgraded to ELF. I'll try to reconstruct them and post them here.
If they work I'll send them to Linus as well.

-- 
Paul H. Hargrove                   All material not otherwise attributed
hargrove@sccm.stanford.edu         is the opinion of the author or a typo.