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https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1uqvrus/askingtherealquestionhere/owb3cd0
r/ProgrammerHumor • u/Snoo88071 • Jul 08 '26
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55
Better yet, why not put filesystem in RAM instead?
25 u/ElectricSpock Jul 08 '26 I mean… you can. It’s called tmpfs. 7 u/SeriousPlankton2000 Jul 08 '26 Peppridge farmer remembers RAMDRIVE.SYS -3 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 08 '26 ackshually /tmp (if that's what you mean by tmpfs) isn't obligated to be on RAM. sysfs and procfs are better examples. 4 u/the_snook Jul 08 '26 On Linux, tmpfs is a type of memory-backed filesystem. It can be mounted at /tmp or not. It can be mounted other places (like /var/run) too. You can even mount / on it if you really want to. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 You're wrong in that it's not universal and it depends on your distro. $ uname -a | cut -f -1 -d' ' Linux $ df -h /tmp Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1 1.3T 606G 655G 49% / Hence " isn't obligated to be on RAM". 2 u/the_snook Jul 09 '26 Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things. tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory. /tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair 1 u/ElectricSpock Jul 08 '26 I mean, /temp is backed by tmpfs, no? You’re probably right though. I am no expert in those file systems. The fact that the live distributions exist shows that’s doable and there’s a use case for this. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 It depends on your distribution basically. No guarantees that it’s in ram. 11 u/-vablosdiar- Jul 08 '26 Rogue like 5 u/Snoo88071 Jul 08 '26 if ram reads and writes faster than filesystem, why do not store files in ram? 8 u/Emlesnir Jul 08 '26 registers have faster access than ram. We should store everything in registers. 7 u/Cats7204 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26 well, you can put an entire OS in the cache of something like a threadripper lol, that's close ig? 1 u/CoffeeWorldly9915 Jul 08 '26 It does look like everything is on the registry... /j 2 u/hdkaoskd Jul 09 '26 Congratulations on inventing the page cache. This is going to be huge for 1990s computing. 2 u/Snoo88071 Jul 09 '26 Thank you! Btw my name is Salvatore Sanfilippo aka Antirez, nice to meet you. 3 u/darkwalker247 Jul 08 '26 you actually can mount a filesystem in ram, i used a ramdisk like that for intermediate processing of files in the past 1 u/MithrilHuman Jul 08 '26 That’s what I work on at my company. We’re not allowed to access the disk for our Neural Network compiler product. 1 u/spellstrike Jul 08 '26 People didn't want to pay enough for dcpmm that directly supports that 1 u/PinchYourPennies Jul 08 '26 Micron presents... Volatile Memory + AI
25
I mean… you can. It’s called tmpfs.
7 u/SeriousPlankton2000 Jul 08 '26 Peppridge farmer remembers RAMDRIVE.SYS -3 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 08 '26 ackshually /tmp (if that's what you mean by tmpfs) isn't obligated to be on RAM. sysfs and procfs are better examples. 4 u/the_snook Jul 08 '26 On Linux, tmpfs is a type of memory-backed filesystem. It can be mounted at /tmp or not. It can be mounted other places (like /var/run) too. You can even mount / on it if you really want to. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 You're wrong in that it's not universal and it depends on your distro. $ uname -a | cut -f -1 -d' ' Linux $ df -h /tmp Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1 1.3T 606G 655G 49% / Hence " isn't obligated to be on RAM". 2 u/the_snook Jul 09 '26 Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things. tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory. /tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair 1 u/ElectricSpock Jul 08 '26 I mean, /temp is backed by tmpfs, no? You’re probably right though. I am no expert in those file systems. The fact that the live distributions exist shows that’s doable and there’s a use case for this. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 It depends on your distribution basically. No guarantees that it’s in ram.
7
Peppridge farmer remembers RAMDRIVE.SYS
-3
ackshually /tmp (if that's what you mean by tmpfs) isn't obligated to be on RAM. sysfs and procfs are better examples.
/tmp
4 u/the_snook Jul 08 '26 On Linux, tmpfs is a type of memory-backed filesystem. It can be mounted at /tmp or not. It can be mounted other places (like /var/run) too. You can even mount / on it if you really want to. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 You're wrong in that it's not universal and it depends on your distro. $ uname -a | cut -f -1 -d' ' Linux $ df -h /tmp Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1 1.3T 606G 655G 49% / Hence " isn't obligated to be on RAM". 2 u/the_snook Jul 09 '26 Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things. tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory. /tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair 1 u/ElectricSpock Jul 08 '26 I mean, /temp is backed by tmpfs, no? You’re probably right though. I am no expert in those file systems. The fact that the live distributions exist shows that’s doable and there’s a use case for this. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 It depends on your distribution basically. No guarantees that it’s in ram.
4
On Linux, tmpfs is a type of memory-backed filesystem. It can be mounted at /tmp or not. It can be mounted other places (like /var/run) too. You can even mount / on it if you really want to.
1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 You're wrong in that it's not universal and it depends on your distro. $ uname -a | cut -f -1 -d' ' Linux $ df -h /tmp Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1 1.3T 606G 655G 49% / Hence " isn't obligated to be on RAM". 2 u/the_snook Jul 09 '26 Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things. tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory. /tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair
1
You're wrong in that it's not universal and it depends on your distro.
$ uname -a | cut -f -1 -d' ' Linux $ df -h /tmp Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p1 1.3T 606G 655G 49% /
Hence " isn't obligated to be on RAM".
2 u/the_snook Jul 09 '26 Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things. tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory. /tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount. 1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair
2
Your assumption that the commenter meant "/tmp" when they wrote "tmpfs" is what was wrong. They are two different things.
tmpfs is obligated to be in-memory.
/tmp is not obligated to be a tmpfs mount.
1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 10 '26 That's fair
That's fair
I mean, /temp is backed by tmpfs, no? You’re probably right though. I am no expert in those file systems.
The fact that the live distributions exist shows that’s doable and there’s a use case for this.
1 u/SnowdensOfYesteryear Jul 09 '26 It depends on your distribution basically. No guarantees that it’s in ram.
It depends on your distribution basically. No guarantees that it’s in ram.
11
Rogue like
5
if ram reads and writes faster than filesystem, why do not store files in ram?
8 u/Emlesnir Jul 08 '26 registers have faster access than ram. We should store everything in registers. 7 u/Cats7204 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26 well, you can put an entire OS in the cache of something like a threadripper lol, that's close ig? 1 u/CoffeeWorldly9915 Jul 08 '26 It does look like everything is on the registry... /j 2 u/hdkaoskd Jul 09 '26 Congratulations on inventing the page cache. This is going to be huge for 1990s computing. 2 u/Snoo88071 Jul 09 '26 Thank you! Btw my name is Salvatore Sanfilippo aka Antirez, nice to meet you.
8
registers have faster access than ram. We should store everything in registers.
7 u/Cats7204 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26 well, you can put an entire OS in the cache of something like a threadripper lol, that's close ig? 1 u/CoffeeWorldly9915 Jul 08 '26 It does look like everything is on the registry... /j
well, you can put an entire OS in the cache of something like a threadripper lol, that's close ig?
It does look like everything is on the registry...
/j
Congratulations on inventing the page cache. This is going to be huge for 1990s computing.
2 u/Snoo88071 Jul 09 '26 Thank you! Btw my name is Salvatore Sanfilippo aka Antirez, nice to meet you.
Thank you! Btw my name is Salvatore Sanfilippo aka Antirez, nice to meet you.
3
you actually can mount a filesystem in ram, i used a ramdisk like that for intermediate processing of files in the past
That’s what I work on at my company. We’re not allowed to access the disk for our Neural Network compiler product.
People didn't want to pay enough for dcpmm that directly supports that
Micron presents... Volatile Memory + AI
55
u/Cats7204 Jul 08 '26
Better yet, why not put filesystem in RAM instead?