Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1382 mails)

[Randall R Schulz <rschulz@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday June 1 2009, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
> ...  If they use the same
> techniques as the kernel uses for swap files, the performance
> increase is tremendously minimal.

And, in the limit, extremely zero.


> > > What is the name / terminology used for this? If you give me the
> > > right keyword I should be able to google out everything.
> >
> > ... When you define a virtual
> > machine you have the option of having the virtualized disks be
> > backed by files (considered the default) or by actual disks or disk
> > partitions.
>
> any "block device" -- these are devices that support read, write, and
> seek operations like "normal" files.

Do you know any block devices these days that aren't disks or flash 
drives? I'm pretty sure DECtape is officially obsolete. While magtape 
had block interfaces (at least in the old Bell Labs Unix), they were 
not truly (or even virtually, like DECtape) random-access. (I did once 
try mkfs-ing and mounting a magtape. It was interesting to watch...)

So it's a distinction without a difference.


Randall Schulz
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