executing a stream

[John Kennedy]

In article <1991Jan16.201910.8646 at Think.COM> Barry Margolin writes:
>In article <1991Jan15.204849 at IASTATE.EDU> Begley Michael L writes:
>>   uncompress -c microemacs|execute   /* uncompress microemacs.Z     */
>>                                      /* into a stream, and execute  */
>
>>I've been told that it can't be done because of swapping...
>>Can anyone help?
>
[...]
>
>Swapping isn't a problem; the process will simply page out of the swap
>area, rather than directly from the executable (since there isn't an
>executable).

  But swapping WOULD be a problem if the compressed file was set up for being
demand pagable.  (-:  Hey!  What's zcat doing in the kernal!!

  If you hacked it out, some possibilities would need elimination.

  What about a device driver (or hardware interface card) that compressed the
data as it was read off the disk?  Doubtless, another very nasty can of worms.
I'm not loosing sleep over it.  (-:{

-- 

Warlock, AKA              +----------------------------------------------------
John Kennedy              | internet: warlock at ecst.csuchico.edu
CSU Chico		  +----------------------------------------------------