divergefs manpage

DIVERGEFS(4)

NAME

divergefs - diverge file system

SYNOPSIS

divergefs -f rulefile [ -h holefile ] [ -d debuglevel ] mountpoint
divergefs -p defaultpath [ -f rulefile ] [ -h holefile ] [-d debuglevel ] mountpoint

DESCRIPTION

Divergefs is a user level file server that allows combining arbitrary number of directories on top of the mount point based on user specified rules from rulefile. It can be used but not limited to: modify files on read-only media, speed up compilation where source code is on remote machine.

OPTIONS

-f Sets the user configuration file which defines what and how the directories will be combined together.

-h Specifies the file to store file or directory names that were removed during the mounted session. If holefile exists, it will be used to initialize the file system, and any file matching the filenames after mount will be masked out. (default /tmp/holes or defaultpath/holes if using default path invocation).

-d Allows the user to specify the amount of debugging mes- sages to be outputted ranging from 1-5. (default 3)

-p Specifies a default path where the holefile will be defaultpath/holes. If rulefile is not specified, a default rule file will be written to defaultpath/rules with content of: defaultpath/files all<> which means that defaultpath/files will be combined on top of mountpoint. defaultpath and defaultpath/files will be automatically created if they do not exist. (default /tmp).

EXAMPLES

The easiest way to use divergefs is to invoke it only with a default path argument and the mountpoint:

divergefs -p /tmp /sys/src

or just:

divergefs /sys/src

in which case the default path will be /tmp. If divergefs is invoked with default path, it will automatically output a rule file at /tmp/rules which you can later modify to suit different needs.

Default path is easy to use but is limited to layering one directory on top of the target mountpoint if you use the supplied default rule file. For More advanced usage, you will want to write your own config file. The following is an example:

divergefs.rc

/tmp/bin mode<x> # redirect executables to /tmp/bin

/tmp ext<8> # redirect any files with extension 8 to /tmp

Mount command:

divergefs -f divergefs.rc mnt

After mounting, writing to ./mnt/*/*.8 will be redirected to /tmp/*/*.8 while writing to executables will be redirected to /tmp/bin.

It is suggested that you supply your own holefile argument so that holefile from a different session won't be used, and it won't be overwritten accidentally. Note: this only applies if you are not using the default path invocation.

SYNTAX

config_file = (rule '\n')*

rule = path complex_rule

path = absolute_path | relative_path

complex_rule = simple_rule (("||" | "&&") complex_rule)?

simple_rule = concrete_rule '<' setting '>' | '(' complex_rule ')'

Concrete rules and corresponding setting syntax are described in the next section. Note: relative_path is rela- tive to the current path at the time of invocation.

RULES

all<> Matches anything. Note: the setting field must be empty.

mode<setting> setting = 'A' | 'L' | 'f' | 'd' | 'r' | 'w' | 'x' | 'e' Matches file with the given mode. Each mode can only have one character in the setting field. Please refer to test(1) for details on the meaning of each charac- ter.

ext<setting> setting = file extension

fregex<setting> setting = regular expression, refer to regexp(2) for details. matches any file name that satisfies the reg- ular expression given.

dregex<setting> setting = regular expression, refer to regexp(2) for details. matches any directory name that satisfies the regular expression given.

regex<setting> setting = regular expression, refer to regexp(2) for details. matches any name that satisfies the regular expression given.

SOURCE

SEE ALSO

BUGS

Renaming read-only directory will result in error.