Messages in this thread | | | From | Mikael Pettersson <> | Date | Fri, 16 Mar 2001 14:57:31 +0100 | Subject | Re: [util-linux] Re: magic device renumbering was -- Re: Linux 2.4.2ac20 |
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Andreas Dilger writes: > Andries writes: > > > I've implemented a patch for util-linux-2.11a > > > which adds LABEL support to mkswap(8) and swapon/swapoff(8). > > > > But I would prefer a somewhat more ambitious approach. > > > > My first thought was: why label individual swap partitions? > > I almost never want to distinguish swap partitions, and just do > > "swapon -a". In case one wants to guard against changing device names, > > why not add an option -A so that "swapon -A" does swapon on each > > partition with a swap signature? > > > > However, that would greatly increase the risk that exists already > > today: someone has a swap partition, and does mkfs.foo, and > > it so happens that foofs does not use the sector with the swapsignature. > > Now this foofs partition has a swap signature, but we would be very > > unhappy if it were used as swap space. > > I think the LABEL is a good intermediate step for people not using LVM. > It basically allows your /etc/fstab to not have _any_ device names in it.
Exactly. IMO, it doesn't really help having LABEL= on your ext2 partitions in /etc/fstab if you cannot also do the same on swap partitions. My LABEL= patch for mkswap/swapon may not be as sexy as a brand new partition table format [which arguably is the better solution in the long run], but it does provide a useful improvement NOW with minimal implementation cost and full compatibility with existing 2.2/2.4 kernels.
> I'm not sure I would be happy with auto-mounting swap partitions, > especially because this would overwrite any data in the partition. Bad.
Me too. I can easily add Andries' "swapon -A" to my patch, but I really don't think that semantics should be the default.
Cheers,
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