Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 02:11:47 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans) Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, bde@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /boot.foo madness Message-ID: <199707211641.CAA24326@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199707211552.BAA19147@godzilla.zeta.org.au> from Bruce Evans at "Jul 22, 97 01:52:47 am"
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Bruce Evans stands accused of saying: > >The files should be installed into /usr/mdec along with the > >prototypical bootblocks, and written to the 'a' partition of the disk > >being labelled by 'disklabel -B' and anything that purports to be > >compatible with it, if they are not already there. Possibly an > > Certainly not. disklabel(8) writes boot blocks; it has no knowledge > file systems. Then either disklabel or the design which requires (as opposed to supports) the presence of these files is in error. > Whatever writes the files has to handle the following > cases: > > - bare disk with no file system: optionally newfs the file system to > reduce to the next case > - disk with file system: optionally fsck and mount it to reduce to > the next case; later unmount it. > - mounted file system: just install -C the help file and write whatever > is necessary to the config files (nothing by default). The first and second case render the 'correct' behaviour in this model problematic; certainly they would possess possibly undesirable side-effects at least as bad as the abomination involved in getting Sun bootblocks installed. It would appear, in this case, that anything that's meant to be a filesystem which might be taken by a bootblock to be a root filesystem candidate must have these files installed. Should this be handled by 'newfs', perhaps with a diagnostic warning when it is generating a filesystem on an 'a' partition, rather than going ahead and mounting it etc.? > Bruce -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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