fast mapcalc

GRASS GRASS user
1

Most Unix workstations allow you to define a ram-disk. If you have enough
RAM you can copy your location to the ram-disk and then run grass normally.

Jim Hinthorne Voice: 509-963-2826

Ram-disk? ... Unix?

I'm sorry. I've only been playing on Unix since about 1983, a short
timer, and *do not* claim to be a guru, but I have never heard of
such a thing as "ram-disk" mentioned in the same breath as Unix.

I know there are a few new things out there, but this one does not
make any sense to me. Unix does a lot of things with available ram
and stacks up a lot of disk I/O in memory, but ... .

Did we mistype DOS?

This is rubbish: exactly the kind of half-witted mis-information which gives
newsgroups a bad name.

Some (if not all) unices DO in fact allow 'ram-disks' or whatever you want to
call it. Slakware LINUX, for example, relies on this feature in order to instal
l
itself. In case any true unix anoraks want to know how to do it, you mount
it like any other disk with an entry in /etc/fstab something like this:

# device directory type options freq pass
/dev/ramdisk /ramdisk ext2 defaults

to find out if your flavour of UNIX can do this, check to see if the device
driver /dev/ramdisk (or something like it) exists. If it does then you can.

Of course you DO need to be root in order to mount a partition, so this
might not be the correct solution to the original question ...
David Wheatley
Department of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

2

David Wheatley sez:

<This is rubbish: exactly the kind of half-witted mis-information which gives
<newsgroups a bad name.

Mr Wheatley,
        I know that it is almost "that" black day in the lives of all Brits, bu
t
cheer up. There are a lot of newbees out here who have a lot to learn.
Learning enough about complex computer systems to do one's work is a real
challenge, usually a pleasant and rewarding one. Please, make the learning
experience positive.

  **********************************************************
  * My Address *
  * *
  * DAVE BARNES *
  * Geology Dept. *
  * Western Michigan University *
  * Kalamazoo, MI 49008 *
  * *
  * email address *
  * *
  * barnesd@lab.cc.wmich.edu *
  **********************************************************

On Mon, 3 Jul 1995, David Wheatley wrote:

>>Most Unix workstations allow you to define a ram-disk. If you have enough
>>RAM you can copy your location to the ram-disk and then run grass normally.
>>
>>Jim Hinthorne Voice: 509-963-2826
>
>Ram-disk? ... Unix?
>
>I'm sorry. I've only been playing on Unix since about 1983, a short
>timer, and *do not* claim to be a guru, but I have never heard of
>such a thing as "ram-disk" mentioned in the same breath as Unix.
>
>I know there are a few new things out there, but this one does not
>make any sense to me. Unix does a lot of things with available ram
>and stacks up a lot of disk I/O in memory, but ... .
>
>Did we mistype DOS?
>

This is rubbish: exactly the kind of half-witted mis-information which gives
newsgroups a bad name.

Some (if not all) unices DO in fact allow 'ram-disks' or whatever you want to
call it. Slakware LINUX, for example, relies on this feature in order to inst

all

itself. In case any true unix anoraks want to know how to do it, you mount
it like any other disk with an entry in /etc/fstab something like this:

# device directory type options freq pass
/dev/ramdisk /ramdisk ext2 defaults

to find out if your flavour of UNIX can do this, check to see if the device
driver /dev/ramdisk (or something like it) exists. If it does then you can.

Of course you DO need to be root in order to mount a partition, so this
might not be the correct solution to the original question ...
David Wheatley
Department of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ