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Path: mn5.swip.net!news From: videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se (Johan Otterstrom) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Here's an AFS FAQ READ IT if you have probbs. Date: 19 Apr 96 23:41:55 -500 Organization: - Message-ID: <28961.6683T1421T2782@mbox200.swipnet.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup112-6-6.swipnet.se NNTP-Posting-User: 3a9622cd6c88f300a7e6b08629051e1a X-Newsreader: THOR 2.22 (Amiga;TCP/IP) *UNREGISTERED* Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-Modified: 5-Feb-1996 Version: 2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Ami-File Safe (AFS) This list is maintained by Mark Harden (faq@harden.demon.co.uk) Hello welcome to release 2 of Mark Harden's Ami File Safe (AFS) FAQ. Certain questions come up on a regulare basis. Some questions are asked by users in trouble where a speedy response is required. This FAQ should reduce the number of times a question is asked while still offering help to the distressed user. FLD have been meening to write an FAQ. As yet this is yet to appear so I have decided to do one. This is my effort. If you have any additions, corrections or comments then please e-mail me at faq@harden.demon.co.uk. I also monitor the AFS list. I plan to post this list every month to the AFS list. I hope if this document is accepted by FLD that it will be available on their file server. If this is the case I will post its location weekly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- This FAQ is copyright (c) 1996 and all rights are reserved. This FAQ may be distributed provided it is intact and proper credit is given and no cost is levied. The contents of this FAQ come from information made available by Fourth Level Development (FLD), Intangible Assets Manufacturing (IAM) and members of the AFS list. The author thanks these people for their help and support of AFS. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this document. I accept no responsibility for errors and omissions. I am in no way connected with Fourth Level Developments. This FAQ is not intended to endore AFS or recommend AFS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- 1. What is AFS ? 2. How fast is AFS ? 3. Are there any specific system requirements ? 4. What is the latest version of AFS ? 5. How reliable is AFS ? 6. Where can I get AFS ? 7. How much does it cost ? 8. What is the difference between the User and Pro versions ? 9. What is multi-user support ? 10. Why limit the user version ? 11. Can I upgrade User to Pro ? 12. Is there a demo ? 13. Is there a review ? 14. Is there a floppy version ? 15. Will AFS work with removable media like Zip and SyQuest drives ? 16. Is there a minimum partition size ? 17. Does DiskSalv understand AFS ? 18. Does ReOrg understand AFS ? 19. Does AFS work with XPK-type compressors like DiskExpander ? 20. Can I use a disk cache with AFS ? 21. Can I use GigaMem or VMM with AFS. 22. Is there any other software that I may have problems with ? 23. What is MaxTransfer ? 24. What value should MaxTransfer be ? 25. What is DMAMask ? 26. What value should DMAMask be ? 27. How many buffers should I assign to each AFS partition ? 28. How do I register ? 29. How do I get upgrades ? 30. How do I become a beta tester ? 31. Do I have to reformat my partition to use AFS ? 32. My machine hangs when I format my partition. Why ? 33. I cannot get AFS to automount. Why ? 34. I have installed AFS and it is very slow. Why ? 35. How do I undelete a file ? 36. Where can I get answers to more questions ? 37. How to join the AFS mail list. 38. How to post mail to the AFS list. 39. How to leave the AFS list. 40. What problems might I expect using this list ? 41. What is DiskValid ? 42. What is MakeLink ? 43. Is AFS completely AmigaDOS compatible ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- 1. What is AFS ? The standard AmigaDOS filesystem (OFS) has always had problems. There are two primary difficulties :- 1. It is slow (on large disks very slow !). 2. The filing system has problems if the system crashes whilst writing to disk. Commodore tried to improve the performance of their filesystem a number of times. Workbench 2.0 added the Fast File System (FFS), and now, with Workbench 3.1, we have the Fast File System with directory caching (FFS-DC). This makes directory scan faster, but writing to disk and directory operations, like delete and rename, are slower than ever. These problems have been addressed by AFS along with a large number of other inefficiencies to produce a new de facto standard filing system for your Amiga. The improvements over FFS in both speed and data security are substantial. AFS was originally developed by Michiel Pelt and released as shareware under the name PFS (Professional File System). The need for a more sophisticated and comprehensive version soon became apparent and this led to collaboration between Michiel Pelt and Fourth Level Developments, who are renowned for their work on Computer filing systems and on magneto-optical drives with very large directory trees. AFS Version 2.1 is the result of that collaboration. Since then extra features and security has been added and AFS V2.2 is now shipping. AFS has the following performance characteristics :- High performance :- * Read and write operations: faster by a factor of 2 * Directory scan: 10-20 times FFS, 3 times FFS-DC * Delete/rename/protect etc: 10-20 times faster * Parallel access almost without performance loss Other features :- * Full AmigaDos compatibility * Better fault tolerance * Disks NEVER get invalidated Note that the harddisk version is NOT compatible with the harddisk shareware versions of PFS. 2. How fast is AFS ? These benchmarks were for an older version of AFS (possibly V2.01 - the version number has been lost in the midsts of time). These benchmarks will hopefully be updated soon. Test FFS AFS Units -------- ----- ----- ------------- DirScan 409 1780 Files/Second Create 227 1073 K/Second Read 244 1363 K/Second The DirScan, Create and Read tests were done with DiskSpeed V4.2 SeekTest (x100) 53.6 4.4 Seconds DeleteTest 35 13 Seconds SeekTest was done using a custom program (Source code available on request). It performs the following sequence :- Seek Start of file Write 4 Bytes Seek to End of file Write 4 Bytes Repeat DeleteTest was done by creating 1000 files of random sizes (up to 100k) in a directory and then deleting them. All tests were done on the same drive on 2 separate (otherwise empty) partitions of 318 MB each. 3. Are there any specific system requirements ? AFS will work on any Amiga with kickstart 2.04 or higher. Versions for both 68000 and 68020+ based systems are provided. 4. What is the latest version of AFS ? Features of AFS version 2.2 :- * Notification * Hard and soft links * Support for large disk drives (Up to 4GB) <== PRO ONLY * Auto-Booting * Add Buffers * Sophisticated Cache Routines * Max transfer and DMA masking * Very Large Directory Support * Setowner * A New Free Block Management System * International Support * MultiUser Filesystem Support <== PRO ONLY * On the fly AFS to FFS conversion * Undelete 5. How reliable is AFS ? It's pretty darn reliable. Read the magazine reviews. September's CU/Amiga said "AFS doesn't invalidate disks. During the course of our tests we reset whilst writing files, powered down when the buffers were being flushed and pulled the SCSI cable out of the drives. This is just asking for trouble, but not once through all these heinous eye watering test could we corrupt the AFS partitions !" That should be good enough for most people, but here is a little more detailed and technical information... FLD says "AFS has been written to take advantage of the atomic theory of filesystem construction". This means that no data pointers are changed unless the validity of the data at which it is to be pointed has been checked as far as is practically possible. AFS has been written to take advantage of the basic physical features of all hard drives. In particular, the amount of time which is taken for capacitance levels to drop in the event of a power outage to the extent that data can be corrupted. Both the MaxTransfer and the DMA mask need to be properly set to ensure that the maximum integrity is obtained from the system. The AFS documentation includes detailed information on how to set them. For systems that follow these guides, FLD is aware of no instances of data loss with AFS since pre-release version 14.7. The system has been exhaustively tested by independent evaluators, none of whom have experienced data loss. Any bug reports made to FLD are carefully tracked and treated. In the event of memory corruption, the only known result has been the loss of data within individual files or directories which have been caused in consequence of programs corrupting memory. In the event of an attempt to corrupt the filesystem cache, AFS converts the filesystem to read-only, protecting your precious data. With pre-release/beta version 14.3, there existed known and documented limitations with the use of some software. Those limitations were fixed before the release of AFS, but unfortunately, someone who had been sent the beta version used some of the software on the list not to use, ran into problems, and posted that they had caused corruption on an AFS drive." As someone who gets a lot of calls from OFS/FFS users desperate for DiskSalv3, I KNOW what kind of data loss you can get from the standard OS filesystems. And how crippling invalidation can be. I can also say that nothing is completely safe, which is why everyone should make regular backups, regardless of the filesystem that they use. 6. Where can I get AFS ? SWEDEN : ╓rebro Videoreklam Slottsg. 12 703 61 ╓REBRO SWEDEN Phone/fax +46(0)19-123807 email johan@loyd.joy.se 7. How much does it cost ? Ami-FileSafe Pro 895:- SEK (in Sweden) Ami-FileSafe User 450:- SEK Uppgradering User till Pro 500:- 8. What is the difference between the User and Pro versions ? The User version can only be installed on a single partition, and that partition must be on a drive which is less than 650MB capacity (not a partition of 650MB, a drive size of 650MB). You cannot install User onto a 10MB partition of a 700MB disk. You may have other drives and other partitions in your system. The User version also contains no multi-user support. It does however include the FFS to AFS converter and undelete. 9. What is multi-user support ? MultiUser support allows you to create a UNIX-like environment where several users live together in harmony, unable to delete each others files, unable to read those private love-letters of other users. And this even if several users are working on the machine at the same time (on a terminal hooked up to the serial port) People without a valid login ID and password won't be able to access files you have made private with MultiUser. If you make all files private (not readable for others), the only useful thing they could do, is boot from a floppy. 10. Why limit the user version ? AFS is a highly technical product which requires a great deal of development resources. We cannot support these resources with sales of User alone. So we selected limitations on User that would allow those who truly cannot afford Pro (and who do not need multi-user support, which was also expensive to develop) to get use of User, but require those with more sophisticated systems to buy Pro, paying a fair price for the software. Note that the benefits of AFS go up with the size of your harddrive -- a 1GB drive takes much longer to validate than a 200MB drive! 11. Can I upgrade User to Pro ? Yes ! You just pay the current difference in price and a small administration fee. Currently 10 US$ or 5 UKP. 12. Is there a demo ? Yes, there is a demo version of AFS which can be installed to a very small partition to give you a sense for whether you want to buy the commercial product. The demo isn't always available in the same revision as the currently shipping AFS (right now it's demo 2.2, production 2.2), since obviously it is the lowest priority of the four versions. UK : ftp.flevel.co.uk:/pub/afs/afsdemo159.lha src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/pub/aminet/biz/demo/afsdemo159.lha USA : ftp.wustl.edu:/pub/aminet/biz/demo/afsdemo159.lha 13. Is there a review ? Yes. A review of AFS is available from AmiNet and comp.sys.amiga.reviews :- AmiFileSafe.txt docs/rview 16K 27 REVIEW: Ami-File-Safe (AFS) filesystem AmiFileSafe_2.txt docs/rview 7K 24 FOLLOWUP: Ami-File-Safe (AFS) filesystem For you doubters, the September 1995 CU/Amiga did a two-page review, Amiga Computing has a review in their October 1995 issue, and other reviews are being written. Since AFS is evolving fast and magazine reviewers often look at a product more than four months before an issue gets to subscribers, most of the limitations found by reviewers have already been addressed. Even at that, their reviews gave AFS pretty darn high marks! 14. Is there a floppy version ? There is a floppy-only version of AFS. It is unlikely to be released as a stand-alone commercial product, but you do get it bundled with both the User and Pro versions. The floppy version is fully compatible with the previous shareware versions of PFS. It can be used for both double and high density disks. 15. Will AFS work with removable media like Zip and SyQuest drives ? Yes. The User version will work, too, as long as those drives are the only one AFS is on and the drives have less than 650MB capacity (which is the case for all current models). Fourth Level Development has special removable media support tools which they bundle with drives. These packages are not yet available in the States, but we are aware of the demand. Without that software, you have to do the same thing you would with FFS on removable media -- HDToolbox, etc. It is suggested that you partition all your cartridges the same. The amiga reads the RDB, partition table, at boot time only. ou should also leave a disk in the drive when you boot. 16. Is there a minimum partition size ? Yes. 5MB. Partitions smaller than this should use the floppy disk version. 17. Does DiskSalv understand AFS ? Yes and no. DiskSalv4 understands AFS but only in SALVAGE mode. Some users wanted some form of "security" so FLD released an early version. This will be upgraded free to the full version when available. DiskSalv4 costs 429:- SEK f÷r AFS users, 549:- SEK other users. 18. Does ReOrg understand AFS ? No. ReOrgAFS is being worked on by the author of ReOrg. Development started at the end of 1995. 19. Does AFS work with XPK-type compressors like DiskExpander ? No. DiskExpeander is not OS legal and will therefore not work with AFS. I understand that the author is working on remedying the problem. You can use power data, or a XPK shareware packer or even Matt Dolen's fsolv-handler which comes with Dice will work fine. 20. Can I use a disk cache with AFS ? FLD do not recommend the use of caching software. AFS uses it own caching which can be made more effective by increasing the number of "buffers". AFS is a secure filesystem. It even tries to protect its buffers from memory corruption. Note that future versions of AFS will take this further. Using a disk cache would circumvent this security. 21. Can I use GigaMem or VMM with AFS. Yes. Page files and partitions all work fine. VMM pseudo-partitions do not work. This is because VMM understands the FFS disk layout and not that used by AFS. Note that virtual memory managers work best to their own partitions. 22. Is there any other software that I may have problems with ? Most software works fine with AFS. As with any changes to the system (such as an upgrade from 1.3 to 2.0, or 2.0 to 3.1, or running a graphics card, etc.), there can be compatibility problems with some very small number of titles. Here is the list of problems Fourth Level has heard of, with notes on what is being done to address the problems. Note that most are expected to be fixed ! DiskExpander - does not work with AFS (Author is checking). Dopus5 - does not register with AFS (Patch on AmiNet). Settlers - does not work with AFS. Excelcier BBS - Some functions do not work under AFS (Author is checking) Diskspare - does not work with MFS and AFS at the same time. Virocop - does not work with AFS (Author is checking). Note that some HD Prep tools do not support custom file systems, in general, the best thing to do is use rdbprep (On AmiNet) instead. DOpusReg.lha biz/dopus 3K 10+DOpusReg.lha: Opus 5.11 fix for AFS pro rdp391.lha disk/misc 136K 40+HD partitioning utility from MicroBotics 23. What is MaxTransfer ? Some IDE drives have problems with high MaxTransfer values, they seem to "choke" on large blocks of data if they are sent by the controller in one gulp. SCSI drives should run with any MaxTransfer, I haven't had any problems with them. By the way, the MaxTransfer value is hardly important for the disk performance - a value of 0xFFFFFF means "16MB max in one transfer" while a value of 0xFFFF is still 64K. I once set it as low as 2K and the loss of speed was hardly noticable. 24. What value should MaxTransfer be ? IDE Drives - Try 0x1FE00. If files greater than 64K get corrupted then reduce it to 0xFE00. SCSI Drives - Use 0xFFFE00. It must also be divisable by the sector size (512) due to a bug in the WorkBench format code. 25. What is DMAMask ? DMAMask is used for two purposes :- 1. High speed devices like disk controllers can read data straight from memory without any CPU load. This access is call direct memory access or DMA. Standard Amiga devices can only use CHIP memory for DMA. Disk controllers are usually capable of using DMA to any memory. The DMAMask value restricts DMA activity by a particular device driver to a particular area of memory. The default value of 0xFFFFFF restricts DMA to the Z2 area. This is a bad idea for any Z3 based machine which always has memory outside this area. In this case 0xFFFFFFFC would be a better value. 2. The DMAMask also control the alignment of any buffers used to access the device. The least significant bits are used to control this. Values with no zero bits, end in 0xF, will have no alignment. Values with one zero bit, end in 0xE, will be word aligned. Values with two zero bits, end in 0xC, will be long word aligned. The alignment can make a lot of difference to performance. Longword alignment is usually the best. 26. What value should DMAMask be ? Read the instructions that came with your computer or disk controller. If this doesn't help look at your memory map with ShowConfig. Use the maximum memory address as a starting point. This should have a number of F's in it. Change the last F to a C to ensure longword alignment. Use this value. 27. How many buffers should I assign to each AFS partition ? The HDToolBox default of 30 buffers, actually 50, will result in poor performance. The minimum should be 100. If you have the memory use 200 buffers for active partitions. Remember that each buffer is 1024 bytes and NOT 512 as is true for FFS. AFS sanity checks the number of buffers ensuring that the value is between 50 and 300. 28. How do I register ? You can register through the post. Alternatively send you name, address and serial number to afsautoreg@flevel.co.uk. You should also quote your preferred language. Note that this mailbox is actually processed by a human begin and so doesn't require any particular layout. It will take a few days to process. When you register you are entitled to 6 months of free upgrades. Often longer ! 29. How do I get upgrades ? You can pay 3.00 UKP in europe or 4.50 UKP. Quote name, address, serial number and preferred language. Alternatively, "telnet" to fgate.flevel.co.uk. When you get the username prompt type "afsup". Note that this is unix and is case sensitive. You will be asked for your e-mail address and serial number. You MUST specify the ones you registered. You will then be asked what version you want. Do not request any beta versions ! Your telnet session will then drop and an e-mail will be composed and sent to you. You will have to "uudecode" and "lha" the result. 30. How do I become a beta tester ? FLD allow users to beta test new versions of AFS. Note that these are TEST version and in all likelyhood will fail taking you partition with it ! It is nice to look at these versions to see where the product is going. If you can FLD would love you to test it and post your results to afsbeta@felevel.co.uk. You are unlikely to get a reply unles you have found a new problem for which they need more information. All bug reports should include detailed machine config details including "ShowConfig" output ! 31. Do I have to reformat my partition to use AFS ? No. You can convert to AFS using the FFS to AFS converter. This utility will :- Scan the disk noting directory information Move any files out of the AFS reserved area (directory area) Create AFS reserved area Change RDB and root block It is best to have a backup, just in case. It is also best to optimise your drive first if you have ReOrg. 32. My machine hangs when I format my partition. Why ? Your MaxTransfer value is too high. See the question on MaxTransfer... It must also be divisable by the sector size (512) due to a bug in the WorkBench format code. 33. I cannot get AFS to automount. Why ? Use HDToolbox. Select the drive. Slect advanced options. Select add/update. Delete all files systems. Now add AFS. Then click on OK. There is no need to have FFS installed in the RDB as it is in ROM anyway ! For each partition select Change. Check the MaxTransfer and DMAMask values. Ensure that the number of reserved blocks is 2 and 0 respectively. Also ensure that you have selected AFS as the filesystem. The automount flag should also be set. Click on OK. Now check the number of buffers you have allocated to each partition. When you have done all AFS partitions click on OK. Save changes to the drive. Exit and reboot. Note that there is one problem that this will not solve. It is possible that the RDB is not big enough to hold AFS. To check look at the list of AFS in the L: directory. Now go back into HDToolbox. Select Change Drive Type. Select the appropriate drive type. Slect edit old. Perform the following calculation :- 1024 * BLOCK_PER_CYLINDER This value should be greater than the size of AFS. If it is not you have problems. You are going to need to reformat you whole drive so backup your data first. Now start HDToolbox select the drive. Select Change Drive type. Select the appropriate drive type. Now double the blocks per track, double the blocks per cylinder and half the number of clinders (round down). If there is still not enough space repeat. Click on OK. Now double click on the new/edited drive type. When finished you will have to repartition your drive, reformat and the restore your data. 34. I have installed AFS and it is very slow. Why ? Check the number of buffers you have allocated. See question on buffers... 35. How do I undelete a file ? AFS remembers the details of the last 31 files deleted. If it is possible to undelete the file it will be placed in the :.deldir directory. Note that to guarantee uniqueness a slot number is appended to the filename. To undelete a file simply copy it from the :.deldir directory and correct the protection bits. It is a BAD idea to copy the file to the same partition as this may use the space of the file you are recovering which WILL result in a corrupt file. Note that you cannot rename files from the :.deldir directory. 36. Where can I get answers to more questions ? If your question is not answered by this FAQ send e-mail to afssupport@flevel.co.uk. Discussion can be posted to the AFS list. See next question... 37. How to join the AFS mail list. Send e-mail to emailurl@flevel.co.uk with the following contents :- subscribe afs your.mail.address end 38. How to post mail to the AFS list. Send e-mail to afs@flevel.co.uk. Please read the FAQ before posting :-) 39. How to leave the AFS list. Send e-mail to emailurl@flevel.co.uk with the following contents :- unsubscribe afs your.mail.address end 40. What problems might I expect using this list ? FLD only post announcements to the list. Do not expect their input. Their are rare exceptions ! FLD's mail system has failed in the past. This means that the list receives no mail instead of the usual DAILY florae... The list server has a habit of :- Duplicating mail. Possibly with a delay of a number of days. This is made worse by the duplicates having different message id's. This will screw up threading in some mail readers. Removes X-header fields at will. Doesn't handle Reply-To: headers correctly. Etc... FLD would like anybody experiencing header handling problems should e-mail the details to them so the can invesigate. 41. What is DiskValid ? DiskValid is a tool writen for beta testers to allow them to check that an AFS partition is still in good health. It can be used to fix bit map errors only. These errors can occur if the machine crashes while writing to disk. The disk is not corrupt - Blocks have been allocated but not used. 42. What is MakeLink ? The standard MakeLink command has a bug with soft links. The AFS distribution includes a bug fixed version which should be used instead ! 43. Is AFS completely AmigaDOS compatible ? AFS does NOT implement record locks. The notification system is actually better than that used by FFS. *** End of attached file *** end ************************************************************************** * AFS Mailing List : email Texts and : afs@flevel.demon.co.uk * * Running under the : % commands : * * EmailURL Protocol : System commands : emailurl@flevel.demon.co.uk * * V1.2 Amiga : Problems etc. : afslist@flevel.demon.co.uk * * : AFS Bugs : afsbugs@flevel.demon.co.uk * * : AFS Sales : afssales@flevel.demon.co.uk * ************************************************************************** áááááááááááááááááá ╓rebro Videoreklam - We sell Amiga/Draco products! -------------------------------------------------- Videoproductions - 3D graphics - Renderservice Nonlinear editing - Vlab Motion/Toccata/Draco/Amiga Tel/fax +46-(0)19-123807 - videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se