From owner-svn-src-all@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 27 22:26:07 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: svn-src-all@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E0974106566C; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:26:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from juli@clockworksquid.com) Received: from mail-gy0-f182.google.com (mail-gy0-f182.google.com [209.85.160.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43FB28FC17; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:26:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gya6 with SMTP id 6so914331gya.13 for ; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:26:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.151.13.10 with SMTP id q10mr18555026ybi.436.1288216560767; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:56:00 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: juli@clockworksquid.com Received: by 10.236.103.139 with HTTP; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:55:40 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20101027214822.GA82697@freebsd.org> References: <201010271848.o9RImNSR019344@svn.freebsd.org> <20101027212601.GA78062@freebsd.org> <4CC899C3.7040107@FreeBSD.org> <20101027214822.GA82697@freebsd.org> From: Juli Mallett Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:55:40 -0700 X-Google-Sender-Auth: aZUsib2Kz_Gsmk2QwG2AaLB9F6Y Message-ID: To: Alexander Best Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: svn-src-head@freebsd.org, svn-src-all@freebsd.org, Doug Barton , src-committers@freebsd.org, Dag-Erling Smorgrav Subject: Re: svn commit: r214431 - head/bin/rm X-BeenThere: svn-src-all@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "SVN commit messages for the entire src tree \(except for " user" and " projects" \)" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:26:08 -0000 On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 14:48, Alexander Best wrote: > On Wed Oct 27 10, Doug Barton wrote: >> What may be a better approach is to confirm the fs' that DO work, list >> them, and then add something to the effect of, "This feature is unlikely >> to work on other file systems." > > i don't think that's a good approach, because then the rm(1) has to be changed > everytime freebsd gets a new fs which works with the -P option. i think it's > better to list which fs semantics DON'T work. so if freebsd gets a new fs, > users simply have to know which semantics the new fs is based on and can decide > for themselves whether the -P switch will work or not. > > so far the -P option doesn't seem to work for: > > - COW fs and/or > - fs with a variable block size and/or > - fs which do journaling I really don't want to ask the average user to know whether their filesystem is in-place block-rewriting or not. That's just silly. In this case Doug is right; I don't think FreeBSD gets new file systems as often as you think that it would be a big burden. Having a general description of the types of filesystem it can work on might be useful, but a list seems more useful still. Listing the types it can't work on is backwards because that requires a user to understand the dichotomy as well as knowing what kind of filesystem they don't have / do have. And for them to never get it backwards. At least mount(8) will tell you what filesystem you are using; there's no tool to tell you the properties of your filesystem, and good luck easily-mining an answer to the question of whether your filesystem fits into that category from a manpage without introducing substantial confusion. Maybe there should be substantial confusion around this feature, though, since that's what it seems to be there for. Juli.