Merge branch 'master' of flubber:~hurd-web/hurd-web

7 files changed, 310 insertions, 240 deletions

diff --git a/hurd/building.mdwn b/hurd/building.mdwn
index a7066465..c0d5648c 100644
--- a/hurd/building.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/building.mdwn
@@ -1,10 +1,5 @@
-Additional to the following text, a further [[example]] has be posted.
-
 /!\ The following information may very well be incomplete and out-dated.
 
-
-# Building the Hurd from Source
-
 If you want to build the Hurd libraries and servers (translators) yourself
 instead of just using pre-built binaries, follow these instructions.
 
@@ -18,8 +13,10 @@ for the GNU Hurd.  You can either compile on a GNU/Hurd system, or need a
 cross-compiler targeting GNU/Hurd.  Our [[toolchain page|toolchain]] has the
 details.
 
+[[!toc]]
+
 
-## Getting the Source Code
+# Getting the Source Code
 
 You can chose between getting the [sources from the developers's
 git](http://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=hurd):
@@ -36,9 +33,9 @@ Please see the Debian [[running/debian/FAQ]] before using `apt-get source`.
 The unpacked source tree is around 20 MiB, and the build tree (configured with
 `--disable-profile`) is around 100 MiB.
 
-## Preparing for the Build
+# Preparing for the Build
 
-### ... on Debian systems
+## ... on Debian systems
 
 Building the Hurd requires the *build-essential* and *fakeroot* packages, their
 dependencies and additional packages that are specified by the source hurd
@@ -47,13 +44,13 @@ package:
     # apt-get install build-essential fakeroot
     # apt-get build-dep hurd
 
-### ... on non-Debian systems
+## ... on non-Debian systems
 
 [TODO]
 
-## Building
+# Building
 
-### Debian `.deb` Files
+## Debian `.deb` Files
 
 Change into the directory with the downloaded / unpacked Hurd sources, e.g.
 
@@ -71,7 +68,7 @@ process with
 
 The `.deb` packages will then drop out at the `../` directory.
 
-### Building, but not the Debian Way
+## Building, but not the Debian Way
 
 The Hurd has to be built in a separate directory:
 
@@ -100,7 +97,7 @@ This will automatically build all libraries that are required to build the
 requested server or library.
 
 
-## RPC IDs
+# RPC IDs
 
 [TODO: update / integrate somewhere.]
 
@@ -116,3 +113,163 @@ mapping between the number of the RPC call and its name:
 Now you can use this file in the following way:
 
     $ rpctrace -i ~/hurd.msgids ls
+
+
+# Testing
+
+Any statically linked binaries (`make proc && (cd proc/ && make proc.static)`)
+can be used directly, as they are self-contained regarding the Hurd libraries
+they're using.
+
+Dynamically linked binaries will use the system's shared Hurd libraries, which
+may be or may not be what you want.
+
+Check:
+
+    $ ldd utils/ps
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
+            libps.so.0.3 => /lib/libps.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x0104a000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x0104e000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Run:
+
+    $ utils/ps
+    [...]
+
+For example, if you have done changes to [[libps]] and now want to test them
+with `ps` (which dynamically links to libps), this is not good.  To overcome
+this, `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` can be used:
+
+Check:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps ldd utils/ps
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
+            libps.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/libps/libps.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x0104b000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x0104e000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Run:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps utils/ps
+    [...]
+
+Additionally, a `hurd-build/lib` directory is populated with links to *all*
+shared Hurd libraries.
+
+Check:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib ldd utils/ps
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x0102b000)
+            libps.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libps.so.0.3 (0x0102d000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x01040000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x01043000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Run:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib utils/ps
+    [...]
+
+Likewise, if there is a reason to, it is possible to use the system's `/bin/ps`
+with a freshly built libps:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps /bin/ps
+    [...]
+
+Etc.
+
+And, the same is possible with [[translator]]s, too.
+
+Check, system's shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
+            libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /lib/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
+            libpager.so.0.3 => /lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01060000)
+            libiohelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x01069000)
+            libfshelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x0106c000)
+            libstore.so.0.3 => /lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01072000)
+            libthreads.so.0.3 => /lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ba000)
+            libports.so.0.3 => /lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010ca000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010ce000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010da000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x0126b000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01282000)
+            libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a8000)
+            libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01315000)
+            libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01319000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Check, local libdiskfs, and otherwise system's shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
+            libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/libdiskfs/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
+            libpager.so.0.3 => /lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01061000)
+            libiohelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x01069000)
+            libfshelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x0106c000)
+            libstore.so.0.3 => /lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01072000)
+            libthreads.so.0.3 => /lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ba000)
+            libports.so.0.3 => /lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010cb000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010ce000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010da000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x0126b000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01282000)
+            libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a9000)
+            libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01315000)
+            libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01319000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Check, all local shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
+            libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x0102b000)
+            libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x0102d000)
+            libpager.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01056000)
+            libiohelp.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x0105e000)
+            libfshelp.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x01061000)
+            libstore.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01066000)
+            libthreads.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ae000)
+            libports.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010b6000)
+            libihash.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010be000)
+            libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
+            libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010d8000)
+            libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01269000)
+            libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01281000)
+            libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a7000)
+            libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01313000)
+            libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01317000)
+            /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)
+
+Run, system's shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M
+
+Run, local libdiskfs, and otherwise system's shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M
+
+Run, all local shared Hurd libraries:
+
+    $ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/lib "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M
+
+Likewise, if there is a reason to, it is possible to use the system's
+`/hurd/tmpfs` with a freshly built libdiskfs:
+
+    $ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs /hurd/tmpfs 32M
+
+Etc.
diff --git a/hurd/building/example.mdwn b/hurd/building/example.mdwn
deleted file mode 100644
index 7c84b102..00000000
--- a/hurd/building/example.mdwn
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
-
-[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
-id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
-document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
-Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
-is included in the section entitled
-[[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
-
-I checked out the source code on my Ubuntu GNU/Linux system connected to the
-Internet using:
-
-    git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/hurd.git
-
-I mounted the hurd directory on Ubuntu from my GNU Hurd system connected to the
-LAN through NFS:
-
-    settrans -ac /mnt /hurd/nfs ubuntu:/home/shaks/code
-
-Copy the hurd directory, locally.
-
-For compilation, you require build-essential, libc0.3-dev, hurd-dev.  I used
-Debian GNU Hurd K10 CDs for installation and they are available in the first
-CD.
-
-    apt-get update
-    apt-get install build-essential libc0.3-dev hurd-dev
-
-Enter into the hurd directory and start building it:
-
-    cd hurd
-    mkdir build 
-    cd build 
-    ../configure
-    make
-
-There is a "libiohelp needed by" error.  So, do a manual compilation for
-libiohelp.
-
-    cd ..
-    make libiohelp
-    cd build
-    make
-
-There is a "libiostore needed by" error.  So, do a manual compilation for
-libiostore.
-
-    cd ..
-    make libiostore
-    cd build
-    make
-
-There is a "libiohelp.so: No such file or directory" error.
-
-Copy libiohelp/libiohelp.so file to build/libiohelp/ and re-run make,
-
-    make
-
-The executables are created in the subdirectories in build/ directory.
diff --git a/hurd/libdiskfs.mdwn b/hurd/libdiskfs.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dd499785
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/libdiskfs.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
+License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+
+# Paging
+
+In the course of Maksym's [[translator/tmpfs]] work:
+
+IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-10-24:
+
+    <mcsim> I've compared the way pagers are handled in ext2fs and found out
+      that for every file new pager is created when occurs reading or writing
+      to this file. Is it necessary? And can one pager handle several memory
+      objects?
+    <antrik> mcsim: yes, this in necessary. one pager port corresponds to one
+      memory object
+    <antrik> mcsim: note that a pager, from the kernel's point of view, is
+      essentially just the port used to communicated with the process
+      responsible for paging the object. how your process manages multiple
+      pager ports is up to you
+    <mcsim> so, how can I attach those pager_* functions, which are declared
+      now in pager-stubs.c to new pager?
+    <mcsim> or is it done automatically with all pagers, which I create, If
+      only I'm not using default one?
+    <antrik> I'm not sure how libpager works; but I suspect it's based on
+      libports. you probably need a port class for the pager ports, and add the
+      port for each new pager your create to that class
+    <antrik> (of course you also need to add it to some port bucket. if you use
+      a single dispatcher for everything, this would be the default bucket; if
+      you want a separate thread for pager handling, you'd have to create an
+      extra bucket for the pagers)
+
+This is the `diskfs_get_filemap` function that a `libdiskfs` client has to
+provide; used in `libdiskfs/rdwr-internal.c:_diskfs_rdwr_internal`, which in
+turn is used by the [[interface/io_read]]/[[interface/io_write]] RPCs.
diff --git a/hurd/libhello_example.mdwn b/hurd/libhello_example.mdwn
deleted file mode 100644
index 2c5490e2..00000000
--- a/hurd/libhello_example.mdwn
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,167 +0,0 @@
-[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
-
-[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
-id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
-document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
-Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
-is included in the section entitled
-[[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
-
-## Howto write a Hurd library
-
-Build the Hurd sources:
-------------------------
-
-Refer to this [[hurd/building/example]].
-
-Create the library files:
-----------------------
-
-Create a directory, say, libhello in the Hurd sources directory. 
-
-Create a lhello.h header file:
-
-    /* lhello.h - Example library header file.
-       Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-       Written by Shakthi Kannan <shaks@shakthimaan.com>.
-    
-       This file is part of the GNU Hurd.
-    
-       The GNU Hurd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-       modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-       published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at
-       your option) any later version.
-    
-       The GNU Hurd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
-       General Public License for more details.
-    
-       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-       along with the GNU Hurd; if not, write to the Free Software
-       Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.  */
-    
-    #ifndef _HURD_HELLO_H
-    #define _HURD_HELLO_H	1
-    
-    struct hello
-    {
-      int x;
-    };
-    
-    #endif	/* _HURD_HELLO_H */
-
-Replace filename, year, author name and e-mail address appropriately.
-
-Create a lhello.c file:
-
-    /* lhello.c - Example library .c file.
-       Copyright (C) 2006
-       Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-       Written by Shakthi Kannan <shaks@shakthimaan.com>.
-       
-       This file is part of the GNU Hurd.
-    
-       The GNU Hurd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-       it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-       the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
-       any later version.
-    
-       The GNU Hurd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-       but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-       GNU General Public License for more details.
-    
-       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-       along with the GNU Hurd; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
-       the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.  */
-    
-    #include "lhello.h"
-    
-    void 
-    print_hello (void)
-    {
-      struct hello example;
-      example.x = 2;
-      printf ("foo and bar are %d words!\n", example.x);
-    } 
-
-Replace header file year, author name and e-mail address appropriately.
-
-Create a Makefile
-
-    #
-    #   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-    #
-    #   This file is part of the GNU Hurd.
-    #
-    #   The GNU Hurd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-    #   modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-    #   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at
-    #   your option) any later version.
-    #
-    #   The GNU Hurd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-    #   WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-    #   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
-    #   General Public License for more details.
-    #
-    #   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-    #   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-    #   Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
-    
-    dir := libhello
-    makemode := library
-    
-    libname := libhello
-    SRCS = lhello.c
-    installhdrs = lhello.h
-    LCLHDRS = $(installhdrs)
-    
-    OBJS = $(SRCS:.c=.o)
-    
-    include ../Makeconf
-
-Update the Makeconf file:
-
-Add libhello to lib-subdirs target in the top-level Makefile in the Hurd
-sources.
-
-    cd build
-    ../configure
-    make
-
-Testing the library
--------------------
-
-Write a file, say, foo.c:
-
-    /* foo.c */
-    
-    #define _GNU_SOURCE
-    
-    int
-    main (int argc, char *argv[])
-    {
-      print_hello();
-      return 0;
-    }
-
-Static compilation and linking method:
-
-    gcc -g -o foo foo.c -L/path/to/libhello -lhello -static
-
-Run the example:
-
-    ./foo
-
-Compilation and dynamic linking method:
-
-    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/path/to/libhello
-    gcc -g -o foo foo.c -L/path/to/libhello -lhello
-
-where /path/to/libhello = /path/to/hurd/build/libhello
-
-Run the example:
-
-    ./foo
diff --git a/hurd/libstore/examples/ramdisk/discussion.mdwn b/hurd/libstore/examples/ramdisk/discussion.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d73bf903
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/libstore/examples/ramdisk/discussion.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
+License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[!tag open_issue_hurd]]
+
+
+# IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-10-15
+
+    <antrik> youpi: I'm not at all talking about ordinary tmpfs. I'm talking
+      about the proposed variant using a separate backing store
+    <antrik> youpi: and as you might remember, I once came up with a crazy
+      passive translator command line (based on another crazy passive
+      translator command line from tschwinge) that can automatically do the
+      mkfs
+    <antrik> so there is really very little benefit in using something else
+      than ext2fs when not paging to the swap partition
+    <antrik> real tmpfs IMHO is mostly useful precisely because it uses the
+      ordinary swap, and doesn't have an explicit size limit...
+    <youpi> well, it is still quite a waste to bounce data betwen page cache
+      and memory storage
+    <youpi> or is ext2fs able to map the store data directly?
+    <youpi> then there's only the medata bounce which is spurious
+    <youpi> and still, even a one-liner settrans doesn't fit with the "is just
+      an fs alternative for the existing tmpfs-mounting scripts"
+    <antrik> youpi: well, if the invocation is the major concern, it would be
+      trivial to write a tiny wrapper binary or script that acts like a
+      "normal" FS...
+    <youpi> antrik: could you write it then?
+    <antrik> you mean a shell script that uses ext2fs on a memory store to act
+      like a "proper" tmpfs?
+    <youpi> I mean whatever that permits to just run mount none /tmp -t tmpfs
+    <youpi> and just works already nowadays
+    <youpi> which we could e.g. ship instead of our currently-completely bugged
+      tmpfs
+    <antrik> I suspect the mount script just looks for /hurd/tmpfs in this
+      case? if so, that should indeed be pretty trivial. let's see if I can dig
+      up my crazy command line -- turning that into a "proper" script should be
+      quite easy I hope...
+    <antrik> hm... I digged up
+      http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2007-04/msg00013.html ; but I
+      wonder how much of it is really necessary for a generic pseudo-tmpfs...
+    <antrik> the major complication seems to be the chmod, which I guess we
+      don't need for most use cases...
+    <youpi> I actually don't see why it's inlined there
+    <youpi> doesn't the caller do it if it needs it?
+    <youpi> ah, well, here there is no caller, it's just a passive entry
+    <antrik> is it a problem that this solution needs an extra node for the
+      store?
+    <youpi> yes
+    <youpi> because you need to say where it resides
+    <youpi> and there's no safe place
+    <youpi> since such safe place would typically be a mounted tmpfs
+    <antrik> I feared that much...
+    <antrik> I suspect we could work around this by not attaching the store to
+      any node; but this a) doesn't work in a shell script, and b) is much more
+      involved...
+    <antrik> hm... can we assume /dev/fd to be present? I have a vague crazy
+      idea...
+    <youpi> yes
+    <antrik> I consider hacking settrans so it grows an option which allows
+      passing the port to the translator as an FD, instead of attaching it to
+      any node... this way, we could work with anonymous translators in shell
+      scripts :-)
+    <antrik> (of course that's not less work than just doing the wrapper in
+      C... but it could be useful in other cases)
diff --git a/hurd/running/virtualbox.mdwn b/hurd/running/virtualbox.mdwn
index 0731b8d6..f57fcbc3 100644
--- a/hurd/running/virtualbox.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/virtualbox.mdwn
@@ -22,7 +22,25 @@ The network controller should be configured as PCnet-PCI II or PCNet-FAST III
 for instance. INTEL PRO or Paravirtualized Network do not work.
 
 
+## Converting from qemu image
+
+It is possible to convert qemu raw image to one of the formats recognized by VirtualBox, namely vdi format.
+
+If you are not sure if the image is a raw format, use qemu to get the information:
+
+    qemu-img info debian-hurd-original.img
+
+To convert the image you need the VirtualBox package properly installed with a VBoxManage tool (which is part of the package). Convert image from raw to vdi:
+
+    VBoxManage convertfromraw debian-hurd-original.img debian-hurd-converted.vdi --format VDI
+
+
 # Performance
 
 If [[QEMU with KVM|qemu]] is not available, VirtualBox reportedly has better
 performance.
+
+IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-10-31:
+
+    <youpi> I don't know what virtualbox does with hardware emulation, but
+      gnumach is awfully slow to probe things there
diff --git a/hurd/translator/tmpfs/notes_various.mdwn b/hurd/translator/tmpfs/notes_various.mdwn
index d16210ca..d1c5cf62 100644
--- a/hurd/translator/tmpfs/notes_various.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/translator/tmpfs/notes_various.mdwn
@@ -212,3 +212,11 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
     <antrik> seems something more broke in the meantime :-(
     <antrik> ah, right... but I the main problem was some other change
     <antrik> (or maybe it never really worked, not sure anymore)
+
+---
+
+IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-10-11:
+
+    <mcsim> There is no patch for "tmpfs crashes on filling an empty file". For
+      second bug there is Zheng Da's patch, but it wasn't applied (at least I
+      didn't found).