fast mapcalc

[Gerald I. Evenden]

>To: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
>From: D.W.Wheatley at soton.ac.uk (David Wheatley)
>Subject: Re: fast mapcalc
>Status: R
>
>>>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.
 ...
>
>This is rubbish: exactly the kind of half-witted mis-information which gives
>newsgroups a bad name.

I don't know how you arrive at that conclusion, but I will ignore it
since it seem to be coming from a boor.

>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 insta
ll
>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.

I cannot find any such beast on three different architectures, nor any
reference to such an animal.

Just because Linux has it does not mean it is common.  Linux may carry
a bit of DOS baggage.

Rather than be so vague in your claim, name some specific non-Linux
systems having such a beast.

>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

Lastly, I did not say it did not exist.  I said I have never heard of it.

Have a nice day.

Gerald (Jerry) I. Evenden   Internet: gie at charon.er.usgs.gov
voice: (508)563-6766          Postal: P.O. Box 1027
  fax: (508)457-2310                  N.Falmouth, MA 02556-1027