Record-access libraries (with query on NFS)

[Andrew Klossner]

	"If you access the raw disk device do you disable that
	read-ahead and write-behind aspect of the UNIX filesystem
	abstraction?"

Yes.  But note: a raw disk does NOT support a byte stream model (at
least under Berkeley).  It implements a block model only.  An
application that tries to do a read(2) or write(2) beginning with a
byte that does not begin a block will find that its lseek pointer is
rounded down to the beginning of the block.  This burned some
application writers here.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (uunet!tektronix!tekecs!frip!andrew)    [UUCP]
                        (andrew%frip.gwd.tek.com at relay.cs.net)  [ARPA]