Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2141 mails)

[alexm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (alexm)]

Hi,

Generally you can call a partition without a file system on it a raw
device. Some databases use this feature "to speed up access".
You can treat /dev/hda# or /dev/sda# as a raw device (usually raw devices
are character devices though, e.g. in AIX).
For example, create a partition using fdisk (lets say it is /dev/sda10).
Do NOT create a file system on it.
Then, run:
# tar -cvf /dev/sda10 /etc --> to backup files to this "raw" device
Then you can read it back using:
# tar -tvf /dev/sda10 --> will list files for you.
Note, that you could write and read data from a partition that does not
have a file system on it (you can not mount it).
A hard disk partition is a block device:
# ls -l /dev/sda1 -->
brw-rw----   1 root     disk       8,   1 Jan 19 22:27 /dev/sda1
"b" --> means that the file is a block device.

-alexm

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Andrew Tuson wrote:

> 
> I am trying to install Yard-SQL from the SuSE Linux 6.0
> CD-ROMs.  Part of the installaion instructions, concerning
> the cfg file, state that:
> 
> 'The device /dev/ryard3 is just an example for using a
> raw device.
> 
> Some operating systems (eg Linux) do not have raw devices.
> Use block devices in these cases.'
> 
> The cfg lines to which this refers are:
> 
> # dbspace    device       size    offset
> F ROOTDBS    /dev/ryard3  200000  0
> 
> Can somebody please explain what 'raw devices' and 'block devices'
> are, and what I should put in the cfg file?


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