From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 22 20:15:01 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E2EB616A401; Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:15:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.186]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C50E313C4E9; Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:15:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin02-en2 [10.13.10.147]) by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/smtpout16/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id l3MKEwWL015472; Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:14:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.5.252] (209-128-86-226.bayarea.net [209.128.86.226]) (authenticated bits=0) by mac.com (Xserve/smtpin02/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id l3MKEtgw006839 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO); Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:14:56 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <86wt076k7u.fsf@dwp.des.no> <619464E1-1CB4-4CFC-9ECF-7FC90DC24A20@mac.com> <863b2u18hz.fsf@dwp.des.no> <4629C2FE.9030301@samsco.org> <91BC1CF6-6C72-4263-A99A-C24FC209586E@mac.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <40B9BC9D-FF08-4694-9DE1-890646C9992B@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Marcel Moolenaar Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:13:53 -0700 To: Ivan Voras X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.3) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== X-Brightmail-scanned: yes Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Subject: Re: GPT as default? X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:15:02 -0000 On Apr 22, 2007, at 12:22 PM, Ivan Voras wrote: > Marcel Moolenaar wrote: > >> These are my requirements (FWIW): >> 1. It needs to have a friendly UI -> I'm using a curses based >> interface. > > Regarding this part: one of the possible side-effects of the installer > might be a GUI for disk partitioning. It's not a text-mode UI, but > maybe > we can avoid duplication of effort here :) I'm all ears. Even if we can't avoid some duplicate effort in the UI area, we should be able to share the backend logic. Also, I'm interested to learn about how you figured the UI to look like. It may be good, in case we can't share the UI, to have it look roughly the same? >> 2. It needs to be used in scripts -> It needs a similar usage >> model as >> gpt(8). >> 3. It needs to replace gpt(8) -> see point 2. > >> Points 2 and 3 are important for our release process. > Yes. As far as I can tell, they are also enough for today - the > rest are > useful, but not necessary "bells and whistles". I tend to agree. However, gpt(8) is the tool that works for today on ia64 and there's not even a tool for PowerPC. I don't feel I'm advancing anything if I replace gpt(8) with a tool that merely works for today. The g_part geom is designed to unify all partitioning schemes and I think that a unified tool is very appropriate. This means that I need to raise the bar if I want it to replace fdisk, bsdlabel and sunlabel in the future. Those tools have a UI for example. Also, the FreeBSD installer needs to be able to partition disks and it needs to be able to support all of our schemes. It is itself a unified tool for partitioning. So, doing more than the bare minimum is beneficial in various ways. That's why I'm having difficulty to just replace gpt(8). -- Marcel Moolenaar xcllnt@mac.com