Re: AUTOFIX patch and a question

[Wolfgang Lux <lux@heidelbg.ibm.com>]

> 
> That was also my first idea when I saw the map-thing: why not simply
> use mount? 
> 
> But why not going another step further? Can't we simply give a command
> in mint.cnf, where to find a /etc-directory and then use /etc/fstab
> for a mount table and all other configuration files usually used in
> UNIX (group, passwd, hosts, inetd.conf, rpc, wtmp, utmp, ...)? If not
> we'll always get the same problems over and over again how we should
> realize configuration files within mint.cnf when they are usually
> located in /etc.
> 
> Thinking about it, this can be done very easy: /etc can be realized by
> a symbolic link and, after having executed mint.cnf, mint should
> simply check for the existence of /etc. If it exists, use the
> configuration files inside, else fall back to the behavior currently
> used in MiNT, or some other useful default.
> 
> Hartmut
> 

I do not see why we should do that. As you said, we can already have a
symbolic link for the /etc directory to get all configuration files
into the right place. And it is not the reposibility of mounting
filesystems. If you look at your favourite Un*x system, you will see
that only the root filesystem will get mounted by the kernel at
startup (and will be mounted read-only!). Somewhere in the init
process (on BSD like systems in /etc/rc after the diskchecks) all
automatic mounts will be done using /etc/fstab and the root
filesystems will be mounted read-write.

I think having a "real" mount command would be quite nice and I have
thought about it for a while. But if we are going to have mount, we
really should have the possibility to use a minixfs filesystem as root
filesystem. We should also have the block devices for access to the
hard drives, etc. This actually is a lot of work to do. And actually a
lot of work I can very well live without. But what I really would like
to have is something like the map command from Frank Bartels'
posting. And actually for the same reason: Not having mounted (or
should I say mapped :-) the floppy drives.

Wolfgang

----
Wolfgang Lux
WZH Heidelberg, IBM Germany             Internet: lux@heidelbg.ibm.com
+49-6221-59-4546                        VNET:     LUX at HEIDELBG
+49-6221-59-3200 (fax)	                EARN:     LUX at DHDIBMIP