transparent archiving

[Root Boy Jim]

   From: Chris Torek <chris at mimsy.uucp>

   In article <5482 at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> randy at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
   (Randy Orrison) writes:
   >I'm thinking of a scheme where files will be stored on tape without
   >user intervention, and will still appear in the directory where they
   >were, but when they are accessed, they are moved back from tape to
   >disk without the user knowing.

   Actually, I imagine the user will notice:

	   % cat old-file
    {*yawn*  Gosh the machine is slow today...}

They certainly will. EXEC 8 does exactly that, rolling out old files
to tape and rolling them back in when referenced. One of the first
things I learned to do was assign all my files with the nowait option
whenever I logged on. Gee, Chris, think of all the fun you missed :-)

I know of at least one company who makes an NFS file server with real
disks staged and destaged to optical disk. In that case, while the I/O
is certainly slower, at least it's faster than waiting for an operator
to find and mount the tape.

   In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
   Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj at icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
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