Linux Fu: User Space File Systems — Now for Windows, Too!

-

One of the nice things about the Unix philosophy that Linux inherited is that the filesystem is very modular. That’s good, too, because a typical system might want a choice of filesystems like ext4, riserfs, btrfs, and even network systems like nfs. Besides that, there are fake file systems like /sys and /dev that help Linux make everything look like a file. The downside is that building a filesystem required changing the kernel or, at least, writing a loadable module. That’s not as hard as it sounds, but it is a little more difficult than writing a normal program. Then came FUSE — file system in user space. This is a single file system module that allows you to create new file systems by writing ordinary code.

My Favorite Fuses

There are several FUSE filesystems that are really useful. Here are some of my favorites:

  • sshfs – Mount a remote filesystem using nothing more than ssh access
  • rclone – Rclone can access and mount many remote file systems
  • tagassistant – Store files with a unique tag access method
  • fuse-zip – Mount zip files
  • gitfs – Mount with git

There are many others. You can find systems to work with, for example, NTFS and a slew of cloud service providers.

What about Windows?

If this is such a great idea, is there a Windows equivalent? Yes, there is. Winfsp looks like a great way to get the same effect under Windows, although it isn’t just plug-and-play compatible with FUSE. There is a FUSE compatibility wrapper that lets you more easily port existing FUSE code. In fact, there are two FUSE wrappers, one for version 2.8 and another for version 3.2.

This is a newer project, but there is also Dokan which also claims to have a FUSE wrapper for their API. According to the Winfsp-provided benchmarks, though, Winfsp performs better.

And So?

If you have a favorite FUSE system, it is probably open source and you could try porting it to Windows, if you were so inclined. If you don’t use Windows, and you want to write your own FUSE system, these systems offer you a way to possibly easily move your work to Windows.

For example, you might have a data logger and want to expose its data as a file system. It isn’t that hard to do. There’s a data structure to fill in, and you don’t have to fill all of it in. You provide functions that the data structure points to that read and write things like directories and file data. Here’s an example in C. Or try a C++ wrapper that enables you to write one with even fewew lines of code. The example has just four simple functions.



from Blog – Hackaday https://ift.tt/3mNnLNH

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Modern Radio Receiver Architecture: From Regenerative to Direct Conversion

-
Image
Modern radio receivers have a distinct advantage over the common early designs which I covered in my previous article . Most of the receivers you will have worked with over the past couple decades are designs by Edwin Armstrong ; regenerative, superregenerative, or most commonly superheterodyne. These are distinguished by a few fascinating key traits that bring both benefits and drawbacks. Today let’s dive into Mr. Armstrong’s receivers. I’ll also talk about DC receivers which, despite the name, are not made to listen to batteries. These are receivers you are much more likely to encounter in modern equipment. Regenerative and Superregenerative The regenerative receiver is all about doing more with less. You still see some of these in simple applications like RF remote controls. The idea derives from how an oscillator works. In a simple way of thinking, an oscillator is an amplifier with enough positive feedback that any tiny signal at the right frequency will amplify and then, throu
Get this one»

Hackaday Links: May 31, 2020

-
We begin with sad news indeed as we mark the passing of Marcel van Kervinck on Monday. The name might not ring a bell, but his project, the Gigatron TTL computer , certainly will. We did a deep dive on the microprocessor-less computer a while back, and Marcel was a regular at conferences and on the Gigatron forums, supporting users and extending what the computer can do. He was pretty candid about his health issues, and I’ll add that when I approached him a few weeks ago out of the blue about perhaps doing a Hack Chat about Gigatron, he was brutally honest about how little time he had left and that he wouldn’t make it that long. I was blown away by the grace and courage he displayed. His co-conspirator Walter Belger will carry on the Gigatron mission, including joining us for a Hack Chat on June 24. In the meantime, this might be a great time to pick up a Gigatron kit before they’re all sold out and get busy soldering all those delicious through-hole TTL chips. May of 2020 is the mo
Get this one»

Homebrew 68K Micro-ATX Computer Runs Its Own OS

-
Image
We’re no stranger to home built Motorola 68000 computers here at Hackaday, but more often than not, they tend to be an experiment in retro minimalism. The venerable processor is usually joined by only a handful of components, and there’s an excellent chance they’ll have taken up residence on a piece of perfboard. Then [NotArtyom] sent in his Blitz , and launched the bar into the stratosphere. Make no mistake, the Blitz isn’t just some simple demo of classic chips. The open hardware motherboard has onboard floppy, IDE, and PS/2 interfaces, with a trio of 8-bit ISA expansion slots for good measure. The  Motorola 68030 CPU is humming along at 50 MHz, with 4 MB of RAM and 512 KB of ROM along for the ride. Designed to fit the Micro-ATX motherboard standard, you can even mount the Blitz in a contemporary PC case and run it on a standard ATX power supply. An earlier prototype of the Blitz motherboard. As if the hardware wasn’t impressive enough, [NotArtyom] went ahead and created his ow
Get this one»