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Date:      Sat, 4 Nov 1995 09:19:08 -0600
From:      rkw@dataplex.net (Richard Wackerbarth)
To:        grog@lemis.de (Greg Lehey)
Cc:        jkh@time.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard), hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: CD automount and things
Message-ID:  <v02130508acc131bd8576@[199.183.109.242]>

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At 8:42 AM 11/4/95, Greg Lehey wrote:
>Still, I've got more important things to worry about.  I just don't
>like seeing the UNIX world diverge too much, and so I'm a bit more
>conservative in my approach to this kind of solution.

So your position is that we should forever carry the burden of poor
design simply because "they have always ..." and we must remain
compatable.

I vote for improved design. Who knows, the others might just copy us.

In the fstab case, I think the "compatability" issue is reasonably
addressed as long as we recognize and accept the "conventional"
syntax.

We can afford a few more bytes in the /etc/rc file to terminate
the boot with a descriptive message eg. "Restart aborted - Required
Filesystem Not Ready". That way the user will understand what happened
and either work around the problem or RTFM and do it "right".

I would also suggest that the distribution fstab include a sample
entry with the optional flag so that the user who edits the file is
likely to notice the option even if he fails to RTFM.

----
Richard Wackerbarth
rkw@dataplex.net





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