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From: volf@oasis.IAEhv.nl (Frank Volf)
Message-Id: <199710121523.PAA07458@oasis.IAEhv.nl>
Subject: Re: bin/4303
In-Reply-To: <199710121359.GAA06950@freefall.freebsd.org> from Joerg Wunsch at "Oct 12, 97 06:59:48 am"
To: joerg@freebsd.org (Joerg Wunsch)
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 17:23:25 +0200 (MEST)
Cc: joerg@freebsd.org, freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org
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Joerg Wunsch wrote:
> Synopsis: dumpon accepts any device, including none swap devices
> 
> State-Changed-From-To: open-closed
> State-Changed-By: joerg
> State-Changed-When: Sun Oct 12 15:58:30 MEST 1997
> State-Changed-Why: 
> 
> I think it is legitime to dump to any device.  I was once
> contemplating to make dumping to tapes work, but never got around to
> do so.  Anyway, i don't see why it needs to be restrained to swap
> partitions.

Joerg,

I completely disagree: if I set dumpon to a non swap device by accident, 
(for example /dev/rsd0s1e) I could/will lose part of my file system.
I think at least a warning should be displayed when using not standard
dump devices.

But that is not the point. In kern_shutdown.c the following code can be
found (arround line 320 in function dumpsys):

        if ((minor(dumpdev)&07) != 1)
                return;

In other words, we only dump on those devices with minor 1 (mod 7). So,
my point is: I can specify the wrong dump device with dumpon. I do not
get a warning, but at the moment supreme it is decided not to produce
a kernel dump at all. In my opinion, if a sysadmin specifies that he
wants a dump, and his dumpon command is not producing an error message
then he assumes that a dump will be created in case of a crash. If we know 
in advance that this is NOT the case, then we should tell him about this.

Please, reconsider the close on this ticket.

Frank


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