[Yaffs] mkyaffsimage question

[Brian Stafford]

Robin Getz wrote:

> Brad wrote:
>
>> You might want to try fakeroot.
>
>
> Thanks for the pointer. I will have a look, but I am not sure it 
> really does want I want.
>
> Russ wrote:
>
>> I think the device table is the preference of most embedded 
>> developers, since its easy to CM, and requires no device creation 
>> scripts or external tools (such as fakeroot).
>
>
> Yeah - that would be me - we are doing embedded Linux - today I can 
> take the same directory structure and run it through mkjffs2 and 
> genext2fs (both pointing to the same device_table. Our make does both 
> at the same time. If I need to mess around with fakeroot, it seems 
> like I need to do something that only is needed for YAFFS?
>
> The dist we are using is uClinux - which supports lots of boards, and 
> lots of platforms - all built with device tables. It would be nice to 
> move something that worked the same way so when we added YAFFS, it 
> wasn't just for a few platforms.
>
> Thanks
> -Robin
>
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>
Hello all...

I just want to throw my tuppence worth here.   In the Unix tradition of
simple tools doing specific jobs wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that
modifies a tar (or cpio or whatever) format archive using the
device_table (extra entries for devices etc can be appended to the
archive)?  This could be done in-place on a file or within a pipeline.
Then genext2fs, mkjffs2, mkyaffs etc need only read an archive to create
the filesystem image using *only* the information found within that
archive.  One could then use something like
    tar -cf rootfs.tar rootfs
    modtar -f rootfs.tar device_table
    mkyaffs image < rootfs.tar
or
    tar -cf - rootfs | modtar device_table | mkyaffs image

What do you think?

Brian