Talk:Loop device

I've merged Loopback mount to Loop device. —Quarl ^(talk) 2007-02-25 10:04Z

IMDisk[edit]

I added a link to the IMDisk utility from LTR Data because the VMware version doesn't work on my w2k8 machines. Thalakan (talk) 20:10, 9 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Loopback device[edit]

There are several instances of use of the term "loopback device" to refer to a loop device (rather than a loopback interface), e.g., [1] [2] [3]. Actually, these are the first hits when searching for "loopback device" (apart from the Wikipedia entry itself). Tizio 14:55, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Once again, loopback device does not belong here. The references you site are simply wrong and are not authoritative. The use of loopback device without qualification refers to loopback interface. The loopback interface has been around a lot longer than loop device. Linux is the only operating system that uses the term 'loop', as far as I know off hand, but it is 'loop' and not 'loopback'. When you read good documentation of the mount command, most people properly speak of 'loop mounting' and not 'loopback mounting'. Now, that said, the linux kernel source code does use the term 'loopback device' ONCE, but only ONCE in a comment, but not in code, where the device is named 'loop_*'. Other operating system, made the difference clear by naming the devices quite differently, namely vnd in BSD, lofi in SunOS. The loop device does not even have the characteristics of the feature of loopback, quite properly but not exhaustively described in loopback. Kbrose (talk) 12:44, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A term that is widely used (even if in the wrong sense) is still something to be mentioned: someone may look at that bad (IYO) documentation and come here looking for "loopback device". Finally, I do not see you provided any evidence so far of the use of "loopback device" to refer to a "loopback interface". Tizio 13:27, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The term is NOT widely used in the wrong way. And for evidence, the UNIX/LINUX kernel source code is the authoritative definition, not enough? in the kernel devices have names, hardcoded in the symbols of driver entry points, and the ONLY device that has the name 'loopback' is the network interface. No encyclopedia includes material that is factually wrong. there is now a note under see also, that it is a different concept, but could be expanded. Kbrose (talk) 13:49, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, we do include include information that is factually wrong, saying that it is factually wrong (e.g., Cow tipping). As for the wide use, check Google and you'll see that many people are using "loopback device" for "loop device" [4]. In this particular case, you showed that "loopback" generally refers to "loopback interface", but you didn't provide any referece for "loopback device" as a synonym for "loopback interface". Tizio 14:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For many readers, the relevance of the word "loop" is less than obvious. Before "Uses of loop mounting" there can be a section "Terminology". There the various terms, ambiguities and corruptions can be explained. Regards, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 16:27, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Any ideas about the first use of this term? I'd guess that "loop" is from having a filesystem in a file in a filesystem. Likely the author who used it first offered a justification. We just need to find it. Regards, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 02:17, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Speed[edit]

Some mention of speed in comparison to using a block device directly might be nice. For example, given a ext2 image on a hard drive, and a ext2 partition on the same hard drive, how much slower is using the loop device to access the image? -- Ralph Corderoy (talk) 17:31, 8 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Rename this article to "fbk (unix)"[edit]

I just learned that WP should give preference to "original work", but the Linux loop device is just a reimplementation of a 5 years older work, called "fbk" (file emulates block device). For this reason, I recommend a rename to "fbk (Unix)". Schily (talk) 20:52, 3 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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when was loop device support added to the various platforms?[edit]

The article mentions windows 7 gained it, I would be interested to know the various years from all the platforms. 73.35.136.136 (talk) 20:39, 23 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]