RAMFS(4)RAMFS(4)
NAME
ramfs – memory file system
SYNOPSIS
ramfs
[
-Dipsu
]
[
-m
mountpoint
]
[
-S
srvname
]
DESCRIPTION
Ramfs
starts a process that mounts itself (see
bind(2))
on
mountpoint
(default
/tmp).
The
ramfs
process implements a file tree rooted at
dir,
keeping all files in memory.
Initially the file tree is empty.
The
-D
option enables a trace of general debugging messages.
The
-i
flag tells
ramfs
to use file descriptors 0 and 1 for its communication channel
rather than create a pipe.
This makes it possible to use
ramfs
as a file server on a remote machine: the file descriptors 0
and 1 will be the network channel from
ramfs
to the client machine.
The
-p
flag causes
ramfs
to make its memory ‘private’
(see
proc(3))
so that its files are not accessible through the debugging interface.
The
-s
(-S)
flag causes
ramfs
to post its channel on
/srv/ramfs
(/srv/srvname)
rather than mounting it on
mountpoint,
enabling multiple clients to access its files.
However, it does not authenticate its clients and its
implementation of groups is simplistic, so
it should not be used for precious data.
The
-u
option permits
ramfs
to consume as much memory as needed;
without it,
ramfs
will limit its consumption to some arbitrary amount,
currently 768MB (enough to hold a CD image).
This program is useful mainly as an example of how
to write a user-level file server.
It can also be used to provide high-performance temporary files.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/ramfs.c
SEE ALSO
bind(2)