Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 06:35:53 -0500 From: Jim Bryant <kc5vdj@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Change request: move mt(1) to /sbin with -static compile Message-ID: <3BAF1A99.9030803@yahoo.com>
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After having a recent -current issue requiring a restore from tape, I found that both dump and restore are statically linked and
available in /sbin, as they should be, given their status as recovery tools.
One unfortunate problem exists with this scenario...
mt(1) resides in /usr/bin, and on top of that, is linked against shared libraries.
Since most people do their backups using the norewind device, and preferably on as few tapes as possible, this means that to get to
the next filesystem to restore you must perform a `mt fsf n` where 'n' is the number of filesets to skip on the tape.
I would like to request that mt(1) be statically compiled and moved to /sbin, where dump and restore are located, in order to
facilitate the use of restore as a recovery tool, especially in cases where /usr may be corrupted or contain invalid libraries or
some other bogosity, allowing mt to be used in single-user mode, and assuming that /usr may have just been newfs'ed...
IMHO, moving it to /bin [as it currently resides in /usr/bin] would be a questionable move, given that it's primary use of
positioning the tape for programs such as dump and restore would indicate it should go into /sbin.
I've heard all of the arguments against root bloat, but this is a tool that belongs inherently with the rest of the system recovery
tools. On -current, the sizing info is as follows:
6:23:18am wahoo(16): size /sbin/mt
text data bss dec hex filename
65896 5216 2604 73716 11ff4 /sbin/mt
6:31:36am wahoo(17): ls -l /sbin/mt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 251045 Sep 13 08:52 /sbin/mt
Also, to head off any possible arguments against using tar and pax as examples "those are in /usr", I must say that tar and pax are
not the official BSD recovery utilities, dump and restore are.
jim
--
ET has one helluva sense of humor!
He's always anal-probing right-wing schizos!
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