From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Aug 7 00:16:24 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A937510656B4; Sun, 7 Aug 2011 00:16:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kob6558@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yi0-f54.google.com (mail-yi0-f54.google.com [209.85.218.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44C3D8FC0C; Sun, 7 Aug 2011 00:16:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: by yib19 with SMTP id 19so160156yib.13 for ; Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:16:23 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=zuVSoiAfUtVfub2fVLDHhScZVF8YVshG0datTHswDNI=; b=NZsC9mvstNEH7Hv//NXiMw+t5VfBiVGwYyrWxU/ZCWNAJibev2jA+nVkBNihHtfNRd bZJekaSult3YkbO8ynKgUCR3ZoDmjuQkafXGrC6pUPQpRi7Pl5Oa2Fzo6U18m6MRC6FI IkZxVOGNrA3zF40iAwfxV80DXmuiZ3x/ZcjeI= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.151.101.15 with SMTP id d15mr4399298ybm.12.1312674458815; Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:47:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.150.97.3 with HTTP; Sat, 6 Aug 2011 16:47:38 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4E3DB3B0.2050208@FreeBSD.org> References: <4E3D552B.3000604@freebsd.org> <4E3DB3B0.2050208@FreeBSD.org> Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2011 16:47:38 -0700 Message-ID: From: Kevin Oberman To: Doug Barton Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Nathan Whitehorn Subject: Re: New installation script X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:16:24 -0000 On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Doug Barton wrote: > On 08/06/2011 07:52, Nathan Whitehorn wrote: >> This is, to some extent, a deliberate design decision. The idea is that >> if you are installing onto an existing partition with the right type, >> then you really do just want to use it without newfs. > > Actually, if I am reinstalling I really do want to newfs the system > partitions because that's how I can guarantee that no old cruft is left > over. I generally do not want to newfs things like /home. I think my use > case here is fairly typical. > > There should at minimum be an option to newfs the partitions one is > installing the OS to. Ideally that option should default to whatever > sysinstall does now (which IIRC is 'on'). I strongly agree. I find it hard to come up with a scenario where installing onto an existing, populated FS would even work unless there was simply installed OS already there, in which case 'newfs'ing would only waste a small amount of time. If an installed system already exists, bsdinstall will fail rather soon when it tries to create a file that already exists, as it did in my case. You may have a /home partition or some other data partition you don't want lose, but, in that case you would not "Modify" it by adding a mount point. That is exactly what I did for all partitions I wanted left alone. If it is /tmp, it is probably irrelevant. If root or /usr, leaving old stuff around is a very bad idea. Even if bsdinstall does not fail, I would not bet on the correctness of the system installed. What I WOULD like to see is a screen that lists the partitions that will be created and 'newfs'ed. Sort of a confirmation screen that ask "Is this what you REALLY want to do. I know that when I hit the point where part of an existing disk that has, for example, a Windows system on it that I do not want to lose, I get very uncomfortable and look very closely at what I've done to confirm that it is what I want to do. I'd love to see something that makes this easier and a bit less nerve wracking. -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer - Retired E-mail: kob6558@gmail.com