On Thu, 23 Nov 2000, Tony Mantler wrote:
> >Now /etc/mtab is also somewhat redundant with /proc/mounts. Actually you
> >should be able to link /etc/mtab to /proc/mounts but it raises a lot of
> >problems and does not work satifactorily in my experience.
> [...]
>
> I think technically the /proc filesystem is optional. Requiring /proc for
> mount to function gives you another fun chicken + egg of how the heck do
> you then mount /proc on startup? ;)
Because mount stats /etc/mtab and does not touch it if it finds that it is
a symlink. But this has still problem, I just can't remember which ones. I
know that I thought it would be great and had to go back to the standard
/etc/mtab.
Indeed proc is optional, but in practice it has become a necessary evil.
Most systems won't boot without it, hey most init scripts now have a look
at /proc/cmdline and whatnots. Ugly as hell...
> At the risk of drifting way off topic, it might be worth looking at
> rewriting mount and fellow /etc/mtab users to just never need to use a file
> like /etc/mtab. I can particularily recall a few times where a stale,
> unwritable /etc/mtab made some system reconfiguration and/or system
> recovery about 5 times more annoying than it needed to be.
>
> 30 years of unix tradition be damned, /etc/mtab sucks.
Indeed.
Cheers,
Gabriel.
