Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 19 Mar 2001 07:14:28 -0800 | From | Ben Ford <> | Subject | Re: Linux should better cope with power failure |
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> Actually, I think /etc/mtab is not needed at all. Originally, UNIX > used to put as much onto the disk (and not in "core") as possible. > so much state information related only to one boot-cycle was > taken out of kernel and stored on disk. /var/run/utmp, /etc/mtab, > , rmtab, and many others. all are invalidated by a reboot, and are yet > stored > in non-volatile storage. kernel memory is not swappable, so they manually > separated out the minimum needed in core. > > Linux currently has a lot of this info in core, and maintains the disk files > for backwards compatibility. in the case of /etc/mtab, I believe > /proc/mounts > has the same info. It appears to be in the same format as /etc/mtab, > so most of the groundwork has already been done. > i've considered trying just changing /etc/mtab to /proc/mounts in some > utilities, to remove the need for read-write root. This (and other cases) > would guarantee consistency (look at /etc/mtab after restart in single > user more - ugh)
It has been suggested to ln -sf /proc/mounts /etc/mtab. Linus has said this, I believe.
-b
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