From owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 17 15:06:43 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7186E106567A; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:06:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [IPv6:2a01:170:102f::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E026B8FC23; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:06:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o7HF6Qno075439; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:06:41 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id o7HF6QL7075437; Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:06:26 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) From: Oliver Fromme Message-Id: <201008171506.o7HF6QL7075437@lurza.secnetix.de> To: walter@pelissero.de Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:06:26 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: <19562.39686.747733.126631@zaphod.home.lan> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL8] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.3.4 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:06:41 +0200 (CEST) Cc: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG, bug-followup@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bin/149424: fstab and labels with whitespace X-BeenThere: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Bug reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:06:43 -0000 Walter C. Pelissero wrote: > Oliver Fromme writes: > > Sure, but still everyone who uses backslashes will have to > > change his /etc/fstab *in advance*, or otherwise his box > > will not boot after the update. > > It seems to be unlikely there are systems out there relying on a > boot-time mounted filesystem whose device path (or label) contains a > backslash. Certainly not a great deal of those. > > Maybe you care to give us some concrete example. Who knows, there > could be a BSD distribution, that I failed to notice, with a really > bizarre naming convention for the device drivers. What prevents you from labelling a disk 'backup\500GB'? In fact I *do* sometimes use backslashes in file names when I would ordinarily use a forward slash, but of course forward slashes are not allowed in file names. > > Of course, it would be possible to change the syntax in a > > backwards-compatible way. But this would require more code > > and would potentially introduce more complications. > > Maybe you should leave alone the generic considerations of > circumstance and write some code yourself. > > In the past 8 years there have been three different proposals and > concrete implementations. You could add your own. So we would at > least know what you mean with "backwards-compatible way". In the past 16 years (maybe longer; I checked only the FreeBSD repository) nobody dared to change the syntax of /etc/fstab. I'm not going to open this can of worms. > > > > in /etc/fstab, for whatever reason. This change would > > > > make them rather unhappy, I'm afraid. > > > > > > Being unhappy for having to change a couple of entries in fstab is not > > > nearly as bad as not being able to insert an entry altogether. > > > > As I wrote, there are several workarounds. > > Then, why do you write it again? Because it seemed that you missed it, because "not being able to insert an entry altogether" is untrue, given the fact that workarounds exist. Breaking existing configurations (possibly leaving people with unbootable remote machines!) is certainly worse than requiring some people to use workarounds for an optional feature. Of course, the case would be completely different if you weren't able to mount those file systems at all. And finally, the patch presented in this PR fails to update all places that handle /etc/fstab. For example, it breaks /etc/rc.d/gbde, /etc/rc.d/jail and "mount -p". Those are just three things from the top of my head; there are probably more. Not to mention any third-party software that might try to parse that file. If you want to change the syntax of /etc/fstab, *all* of the above needs to be adapted. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Geschäftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün- chen, HRB 125758, Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd "If you think C++ is not overly complicated, just what is a protected abstract virtual base pure virtual private destructor, and when was the last time you needed one?" -- Tom Cargil, C++ Journal