I know the purpose of OSR is to sell their seminars and I am not against going to one, but I feel absolutely intimidated by some of the information I see about file system development on Windows.
I am a newbie to Windows File System development, but I am quite experienced in writing low level operating system code, although my experience is on mainframe computer systems rather than Windows. But, the architecture of the systems I have worked on is very similar to the Windows NT kernel architecture.
It would help me a lot and even would get me to attend one of your seminars if I could get from someone a very simple example of a File System Driver that I could install and test and even debug on my computer. I’m thinking of something like the famous “Hello World” C program, that is so simple that even a newbie like me would have no trouble installing it and getting it to do whatever little it does.
Does anyone out there have something like that; that they would be willing to share with me. I know I’m not offering much in return, but maybe there is someone who would do such a thing just out of the goodness of their heart 
Goodness? Money is a great motivator.
You have asked about Windows file systems. Do you mean the file system
driver (FSD) such as NTFS, fastfat, or that new one in Server 2008? Or do
you mean a filter? What type of filter? Will it be passive or active?
There are samples of passive file system filters in the WDK. The source to
fastfat is also present. OSR has two kits and I am sure they have some
samples with them.
<sid.schipper> wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
>I know the purpose of OSR is to sell their seminars and I am not against
>going to one, but I feel absolutely intimidated by some of the information
>I see about file system development on Windows.
>
> I am a newbie to Windows File System development, but I am quite
> experienced in writing low level operating system code, although my
> experience is on mainframe computer systems rather than Windows. But, the
> architecture of the systems I have worked on is very similar to the
> Windows NT kernel architecture.
>
> It would help me a lot and even would get me to attend one of your
> seminars if I could get from someone a very simple example of a File
> System Driver that I could install and test and even debug on my computer.
> I’m thinking of something like the famous “Hello World” C program, that is
> so simple that even a newbie like me would have no trouble installing it
> and getting it to do whatever little it does.
>
> Does anyone out there have something like that; that they would be willing
> to share with me. I know I’m not offering much in return, but maybe there
> is someone who would do such a thing just out of the goodness of their
> heart
>
></sid.schipper>
The samples I’ve seen are not simple enough for me, maybe I’m just
dense.
But, thanks for the reply, I will revisit the samples in the WDK and see
if I can work through one of them.
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David Craig
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 3:23 PM
To: Windows File Systems Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntfsd] Newbie
Goodness? Money is a great motivator.
You have asked about Windows file systems. Do you mean the file system
driver (FSD) such as NTFS, fastfat, or that new one in Server 2008? Or
do
you mean a filter? What type of filter? Will it be passive or active?
There are samples of passive file system filters in the WDK. The source
to
fastfat is also present. OSR has two kits and I am sure they have some
samples with them.
<sid.schipper> wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
>I know the purpose of OSR is to sell their seminars and I am not
against
>going to one, but I feel absolutely intimidated by some of the
information
>I see about file system development on Windows.
>
> I am a newbie to Windows File System development, but I am quite
> experienced in writing low level operating system code, although my
> experience is on mainframe computer systems rather than Windows. But,
the
> architecture of the systems I have worked on is very similar to the
> Windows NT kernel architecture.
>
> It would help me a lot and even would get me to attend one of your
> seminars if I could get from someone a very simple example of a File
> System Driver that I could install and test and even debug on my
computer.
> I’m thinking of something like the famous “Hello World” C program,
that is
> so simple that even a newbie like me would have no trouble installing
it
> and getting it to do whatever little it does.
>
> Does anyone out there have something like that; that they would be
willing
> to share with me. I know I’m not offering much in return, but maybe
there
> is someone who would do such a thing just out of the goodness of their
> heart
>
>
—
NTFSD is sponsored by OSR
For our schedule debugging and file system seminars
(including our new fs mini-filter seminar) visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars
You are currently subscribed to ntfsd as: sid.schipper@ga.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com</sid.schipper>
Sydney,
Start with the minispy source in the WDK (\WinDDK\6000\src\filesys\miniFilter\minispy).
Set up a VM or remote PC with windbg and just start stepping through the code. Put the Data element into the watch window and watch it change items. Try to follow the process along. Then as you see different things, rummage through the docs, see what they do / etc as well as reference the forums here.
The sample i suggested is a simple passive logging filter that lets you see whats going on. Its probably as close to ‘hello world’ to start from regarding how filter drivers may operate. The people who communicate on the forums here are incredibly knowledgeable, however that said, it is expected that you spent the majority of your time doing your own research. Just so you understand, you really will not find any hand holding in here simply because it leads to an infinite number of questions back to back.
The reality behind writing filter drivers is that there really is no “hello world” type of thing. You have to really understand the background of how the kernel works, and how drivers interchange data. Without those 2 fundamental blocks, you will be asking a lot of questions that will burn your time and may ultimately frustrate you.
If you are serious about learning this area of expertise, I would suggest the Windows internals book by Russinovich & Solomon and Rajeev Nagar’s book File system internals, lots of patience, an open mind, and an eagerness to deal with a ton of rules. Writing this type of driver is not for the light hearted, but from my experience, the personal return was well worth the learning curve. Then after you have exhausted all resources and are stuck on a problem, you may want to ask in here for help.
By showing the respect and courtesy of trying to help yourself first and getting up to speed, you’ll most likely receive some great info from the years of experience the people in here have.
> It would help me a lot and even would get me to attend one of your seminars
if I
could get from someone a very simple example of a File System Driver that I
could
The source of FASTFAT is provided in the WDK.
–
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com
Thank you all for your replies. Since I originally posted this message I have been working with the minispy example in the WDK and using Mark Russinovich’s book “Windows Internals”, Fourth edition as a reference and I have made a lot of progress in understanding filter driver development as well as Windows Internals in general. I would highly recommend that book. Below is a link to the Microsoft page that describes it.
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/6710.aspx
PS, No I am not Mark Russinovich’s agent :-), just a fan.
You are missing the most important book. It has been reprinted by OSR and
is available. You still need to read and understand Nagar’s book on file
systems. It is legacy based, but minifilters are controlled by a driver
that is just a legacy filter.
<sid.schipper> wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
> Thank you all for your replies. Since I originally posted this message I
> have been working with the minispy example in the WDK and using Mark
> Russinovich’s book “Windows Internals”, Fourth edition as a reference and
> I have made a lot of progress in understanding filter driver development
> as well as Windows Internals in general. I would highly recommend that
> book. Below is a link to the Microsoft page that describes it.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/6710.aspx
>
> PS, No I am not Mark Russinovich’s agent :-), just a fan.
></sid.schipper>