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SubjectRe: IDEA for CD auto eject/(dis)mount
Date
Thomas R Schar <thomas@cs.adelaide.edu.au> writes:

> Anyway, the proposal we were considering was a general method of
> mounting removable media; floppies as well as cd's. it would be neat
> if there was some sort of hotkey for certain devices like /dev/fd0,
> and /dev/cdrom so that all you would have to do is press like
> alt-insert or something, and it would [...]

Lots of things are neat, but that doesn't mean they should be put into
the kernel. Such an elaborate scheme should be part of a user-level
program.

I've always been very annoyed whenever a cdrom driver under Linux that
autoejects on unmounting by *default*. It's a very bad default to
have for these reasons:

1. Not all cdroms can be ejected (by either software or mechanics)
so behavior is inconsistent across different cdroms.
2. It's often a bad idea:
- Autoejecting cdroms at remote machines that are difficult to
access.
- Invites someone to "borrow" a cd when you're working remotely.
- Machines opening/closing trays at system shutdown/reboot.
3. It's not standard behavior. All other operating systems require
a specific "eject" action to be taken: System 7, DOS, Solaris, etc.

But, it would be nice if every cdrom driver under Linux share an ioctl
or system call to "eject" unmounted removable (block) devices that
support ejection (and whatever the opposite of ejection is). Then, a
mount option could be added to activate move the tray (in the
appropriate direction) on mounting or unmounting. It could be placed
in /etc/fstab or on the command line (and the "don't do it" option
could be added when shutting a system down).

This also helps keep control of the autoeject behavior under system
administrator control, not a device driver, nor the person who
compiled the kernel.

Dan
--
Daniel Quinlan Member of the League for Programming Freedom
quinlan@bucknell.edu


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