From owner-freebsd-current Mon Jun 26 18:30:29 1995 Return-Path: current-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id SAA00567 for current-outgoing; Mon, 26 Jun 1995 18:30:29 -0700 Received: from skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (skynet.ctr.columbia.edu [128.59.64.70]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with ESMTP id SAA00561 for ; Mon, 26 Jun 1995 18:30:25 -0700 Received: (from wpaul@localhost) by skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (8.6.11/8.6.9) id VAA02111 for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Mon, 26 Jun 1995 21:30:05 -0400 From: A boy and his worm gear Message-Id: <199506270130.VAA02111@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> Subject: Proposal for mountd change To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 21:30:01 -0400 (EDT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 1793 Sender: current-owner@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk Hello there: Not too long ago, somebody sent a message to the bugs list about a problem using a FreeBSD machine as a boot server for a diskless Sun client. The problem is that Suns try to directly mount their swap devices as plain files rather than mounting the filesystem containing the swap file and then getting a file handle for the swap file once the mount of the filesystem has succeeded. As it happens, mountd is designed (yes David G., the word is designed, not 'architected' -- there's no such word as 'architected') to check the mount path supplied by the client and reject anything that isn't a directory, including plain files. This makes it impossible to use FreeBSD to completely support diskless booting of SunOS 4.x machines (I'm not sure if Solaris 2.x has the same requirements). Anyway, I'd like to find a way around this. I'm wondering if it would be possible to add a run-time option to mountd to loosen the 'directories only' restriction to include plain files. This is just an idea at this point -- I haven't had the chance to test it. I'm not even certain that twisting mountd's arm is the only thing that's required. Suggestions or comments would be appreciated. I'll have a chance to test this notion sometime this coming weekend. -Bill -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~T~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Møøse Illuminati: ignore it and be confused, or join it and be confusing! ~~~~~~ "Welcome to All Things BSDish! If it's not BSDish, it's crap!" ~~~~~~~