Re: kernel-managed /dev, revisited

Keith Rohrer (kwrohrer@uiuc.edu)
Sun, 13 Jul 1997 02:46:38 -0500 (CDT)

And lo, Alan Cox saith unto me:
> > Actually, I like Ted's idea better: Have the kernel scan the disk
> > labels at boot time for every partition detected and grab a list of
> > the disk labels on those partitions (you will need to label your file
> > systems of course).
> How about CD and scanners. Do I put sheets of paper with 1,2,3,4 in my
> scanners at boot time ?
Howabout if /etc/fstab stays the same as normal, possibly with "key" fields
after the usual fields; then add /etc/fsatab for associations between either
keys or actual device (disk, partition, whatnot) names in /etc/fstab, and
strings gathered from /proc/scsi/scsi, whatever volume-label-checker program
may exist, and hdparm -i on all the IDE disks. This will let you know at
least the model numbers of all SCSI devices, and the model and serial numbers
of all IDE devices, even without volume labels.

Then a program called "amount" could associate its arguments, /etc/fsatab,
and /etc/fstab to figure out how to call mount and do so (and would
be configurable to print a warning if it had to actually do something
different than /etc/fstab literally says, to scream at you at boot time
if it had to fall back or if you had drives plugged in oddly). A similar
"aswapon" command could easily be written. No muss, no fuss, no kernel
patches.

Keith (or even mount `amount args...`)