<p dir="ltr"><br>
On Jul 15, 2013 5:51 PM, "Lennart Poettering" <<a href="mailto:mzerqung@0pointer.de">mzerqung@0pointer.de</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> On Tue, 16.07.13 09:13, Dan Fruehauf (<a href="mailto:malkodan@gmail.com">malkodan@gmail.com</a>) wrote:<br>
><br>
> > > Well, there are certain things on Unix that are text files and many<br>
> > > things that are not. Binary log files have a long tradition on Unix, for<br>
> > > example in wtmp and utmp. We have binary files in /etc, and everywhere<br>
> > > else.<br>
> > ><br>
> > And the reason for that being? I have no idea either, it's probably too old<br>
> > to be dug. Howver yes, I'd like these to be text based as well.<br>
><br>
> Oh, the reasons are pretty well-known for those cases. For example<br>
> wtmp/utmp is binary so that utmp works nicely as sparse file and the<br>
> entries may be accessed using the UID number as seek index (multipled by<br>
> the fixed entry size). So, it's about indexing, exactly as for journal<br>
> files. The Unix guys back then chose binary when it made sense for their<br>
> immediate technical requirements. And for us it's the exact same.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I don't believe that was the reason, since when utmp was invented, Unix had 16-bit UIDs and did not have sparse files. On the other hand, I don't know the actual reason.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Eric<br>
</p>