The GENDIST Toolkit


Filesystems

GENDIST uses the word "filesystem" generally not in the sense of a filesystem-type (e.g. like ext2 or minix), but to describe a tree of directories. For most mini-distributions, there is only one filesystem, the root-filesystem. For CD-based distributions, you also have the cd-filesystem (which fills the CD). Since CD-based distributions usually boot from an emulated disk, these distributions typically have two filesystems.

Filesystems are created using packages. Each package is a unit of work, typically copying some file to the target directory-tree.

Starting with version 1.2.0, GENDIST supports any number of filesystems. For example, if you want to create a modules-disk, you would create a "modules-filesystem" named modules-fs.

Running "make modules-fs" will then create the filesystem in the directory <path-to-your-distribution>/build/modules-fs.

To put these auxiliary filesystems on a medium, use a command similar to

# make media TYPE=plain-cd FS=modules-fs
or
# make media TYPE=plain-disk FS=modules-fs FS_TYPE=minix

The two standard filesystems root-fs and cd-fs are created automatically when needed, so in normal circumstances it is not necessary to build these filesystems manually.


Using GENDIST to maintain chroot-environments

Multiple GENDIST-filesystems can also be used to maintain a number of chroot-environments. In this case, you would create a symlink from <path-to-your-distribution>/build/foo-fs to the root of the respective chroot-tree.


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Bernhard Bablok (mail @ bablokb.de)