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1.3 Advantages of My Solution
The advantages of a file system compiler are:
- 1.
- It should be easier to implement a file system in FiST than in C.
- 2.
- FiST adapts to the existing vnode definitions, so a single FiST
program can be compiled to run on different operating systems that may have
different vnode definitions.
- 3.
- No kernel sources (usually proprietary and expensive) are required,
meaning that anyone, not just operating system vendors, can become a file
system implementer. Eliminating the need for kernel code also saves time
spent on browsing and modifying, and licensing costs for each file
system and platform.
- 4.
- The same FiST program can be used to generate kernel-resident or
user-level modules. User-level file systems are useful during development,
as they are much easier to debug. Kernel-level file systems provide the
best performance.
I expect that FiST will substantially increase the ease and speed with which
researchers can prototype new file system ideas, thereby leading to a
qualitative improvement in file system innovation.
Next: 1.4 Organization of this
Up: 1. Introduction
Previous: 1.2 My Solution
Erez Zadok
1999-12-07