Package: dosfstools
Version: 2.11-8
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
A coworker was asking me for help w/ mkdosfs today - wondering what this
error message meant:
gpark4:~ # mkdosfs /dev/sdc
mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
mkdosfs: Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device '/dev/sdc' (use -I
if wanted)
And frankly, I wasn't sure either because I read "full" as "non-empty".
After reading the manpage, it was pretty clear that the meaning of "full"
that was intended was a synonym for "entire". This patch simply changes
some wording to make the intended meaning more obvious (to me, at least).
-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: ia64
Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-mckinley (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages dosfstools depends on:
ii libc6.1 2.7-13 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
dosfstools recommends no packages.
dosfstools suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
diff -urpN dosfstools-3.0.0.orig/man/mkdosfs.8 dosfstools-3.0.0/man/mkdosfs.8
--- dosfstools-3.0.0.orig/man/mkdosfs.8 2008-09-27 03:31:53.000000000 -0600
+++ dosfstools-3.0.0/man/mkdosfs.8 2008-09-29 13:41:52.000000000 -0600
@@ -141,7 +141,8 @@ is a 32-bit hexadecimal number (for exam
is a number which depends on the file system creation time.
.TP
.B \-I
-Normally you are not allowed to use any 'full' fixed disk devices.
+It is typical for fixed disk devices to be partitioned so, by default, you are
+not permitted to create a filesystem across the entire device.
.B mkdosfs
will complain and tell you that it refuses to work. This is different
when using MO disks. One doesn't always need partitions on MO disks.
diff -urpN dosfstools-3.0.0.orig/src/mkdosfs.c dosfstools-3.0.0/src/mkdosfs.c
--- dosfstools-3.0.0.orig/src/mkdosfs.c 2008-09-28 03:22:09.000000000 -0600
+++ dosfstools-3.0.0/src/mkdosfs.c 2008-09-29 13:40:20.000000000 -0600
@@ -1711,7 +1711,7 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
(statbuf.st_rdev & 0xff3f) == 0x0d00 || /* xd */
(statbuf.st_rdev & 0xff3f) == 0x1600 ) /* hdc, hdd */
)
- die ("Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device '%s' (use -I if wanted)");
+ die ("Device partition expected, not making filesystem on entire device '%s' (use -I to override)");
if (sector_size_set)
{
