Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:01:26 -0500 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> Cc: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, David Allen <the.real.david.allen@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Partition naming, fstab, and geli Message-ID: <20091116180126.GA48289@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20091117022555.Y65262@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20091116120014.A477010656F8@hub.freebsd.org> <20091117022555.Y65262@sola.nimnet.asn.au>
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On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 03:04:27AM +1100, Ian Smith wrote: > In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 285, Issue 2, Message 2 > On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:23:15 -0700 David Allen wrote: > > > Say I have performed a standard installation of FreeBSD onto a single IDE > > drive with the following entries in /etc/fstab: > > > > /dev/ad0s1b none swap sw 0 0 > > /dev/ad0s1a / ufs rw 1 1 > > /dev/ad0s1d /var ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad0s1e /tmp ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad0s1f /usr ufs rw 2 2 > > > > Then I added more drives. > > > > 1. The Handbook suggests there is a convention that when partitioning a a > > drive that's been added, to label the first new partition on that drive as > > 'e' as opposed to 'a' (which is reserved for the /root partition). Does > > the following satisfy that convention, or would starting with 'a' in each > > case make more sense? > > > > /dev/ad1e /foo1 ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad1f /bar1 ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad1g /baz1 ufs rw 2 2 > > > > /dev/ad2e /foo2 ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad2f /bar2 ufs rw 2 2 > > > > /dev/ad3e /foo3 ufs rw 2 2 > > /dev/ad3f /bar3 ufs rw 2 2 > > If you added these with sysinstall (or sade) it will tend to choose 'd' > for the first partition on other than the / partition (which is named > 'a' on install). Or at least, it's always started with 'd' for me :) Generally, using 'a' for root is needed if the slice is a device and root (/) will be there. But, probably because of that, the tradition of reserving 'a' is strong enough that many people and some utilities just do it that way unless specifically directed otherwise. But, if it is a second (third, fourth, etc) slice/drive that will not have a root partition, it doesn't actually matter. I tend to use 'a' if the drive will be entirely one slice and one partition used for some special work or scratch space, but stick with 'd..h' if there will be more than one partition and just leave 'a' alone - for no other reason than habit. As for 'd' vs 'e', sometime a long time and many generations ago there was a convention of reserving 'd' for something. I don't remember what it was. It was pre FreeBSD 3 and pre 1997 and maybe even pre any FreeBSD and applied in some earlier Unix-en before the court cases, but not after. That old convention accounts for documentation starting with using 'e' for extra partitions and skipping 'd'. But, whatever that old convention was, it has not been used for so long that it is meaningless nowdays and 'd' can be used for whatever extra partition you want. ////jerry > > But if you're doing it manually starting with 'e' is fine. I suspect > the handbook section you quoted to Polytropon later is more an example > than definitive. You can happily mount an 'a' partition from another > drive that was once a system disk; it's more of a convention really. > > > 2. My second question is in regards to using the 'xx' fstype to have the > > system ignore that device. > > > > Consider, for example, a geli encrypted partition. The .eli device > > doesn't exist at boot time. I discovered by accident that the system > > won't boot with an fstab entry for a device that doesn't exist. So if I > > was to record an entry in fstab, I couldn't use > > > > /dev/ad1e.eli /home/david/private ufs rw 0 0 > > > > Does that mean that the following is what's typically to record fstab > > entries for ignored devices? > > > > /dev/ad1e.eli /home/david/private xx rw 0 0 > > /dev/ad3e /fake xx rw 0 0 > > /dev/ad3f /reserved xx rw 0 0 > > Yes. Here I must differ with Polytropon, though your format for the > options isn't perhaps quite right. From an old fstab here: > > # Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# > /dev/acd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0 > /dev/ad0s1 /dos msdosfs ro,noauto 0 0 > /dev/ad0s2b none swap sw 0 0 > /dev/ad0s2a / ufs rw 1 1 > /dev/ad0s2d /var ufs rw,noatime 2 2 > /dev/ad0s2e /usr ufs rw,noatime 2 2 > /dev/ad0s4d /paqi4.5 ufs ro,noauto,nodev,noexec,nosymfollow,noatime 2 3 > /dev/ad0s4e /paqi4.5/var ufs ro,noauto,nodev,noexec,nosymfollow,noatime 2 4 > /dev/ad0s4f /paqi4.5/usr ufs ro,noauto,nodev,noexec,nosymfollow,noatime 2 4 > # 25Apr06 ext 20Gb USB disk. DON'T autoadd these, deadly if da0 absent! > # .. xx fsopts, everything incl fsck must ignore .. > /dev/da0s3d /usbdsk ufs xx,noauto,nosymfollow 3 3 > /dev/da0s3e /usbdsk/var ufs xx,noauto,nosymfollow 4 4 > /dev/da0s3f /usbdsk/usr ufs xx,noauto,nosymfollow 4 4 > # 26May06 shintaro 1G flashdrive .. just doc, can't mount using these .. > /dev/da0s1 /flash/dos msdosfs xx,noauto 0 0 > /dev/da0s2d /flash/ufs ufs xx,noauto,noatime 3 3 > /dev/da0s3d /flash/pvt ufs xx,noauto,noatime 3 3 > > As you say they're useful for doc, and not hard to edit into action. > Note the additions above were assigned starting at 'd' by sysinstall. > > cheers, Ian > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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