Creating a file system

This assignment is due 29 April, 1996.

You do not have to think to complete this assignment. Just carefully follow the procedure. This assignment must be performed on one of the DECstation 5000/25's in Robinson 004. You may do this assignment in groups of two or three people.

In this assignment you will put a Unix file system on a floppy disk.

First, you must perform a "low-level" format of the disk. Use fddisk for this first step. By the way, the names of the floppy disk are:

You'll have to use different names at various times.

Second, you must place a Unix file system on the disk. This is somewhat like performing a high-level format on the disk. Use newfs for this step. The disk type is "RX02". It's a little more fun to watch if you use the "-v" option.

Third, because you're a careful person, you run "fsck" on the disk and, because you want to know all the details of the Unix file system, you also run "dumpfs".

Fourth, you use mkdir to create a mount point for the disk.

Fifth, you mount the floppy disk.

Sixth, you execute "df | mail brock" to obtain proof you got this far.

Seventh, you unmount the floppy disk. If you don't do this you'll made a lot of people unhappy.

Unfortunately, the root directory of the floppy that you mount can be written only by the super-user. However, you can change the ownership of the floppy's root directory by writing to the underlying disk device. It's not easy.

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