From owner-freebsd-questions  Sun Nov 28  2: 8:47 1999
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Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 01:55:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Charlie Root <root@saipan.transbay.net>
Message-Id: <199911280955.BAA00473@saipan.transbay.net>
To: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: /stand/sysinstall's implicit behavior
Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
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I run /stand/sysinstall. I have wd0, wd2 and da0 mounted,
wd0 is the current running system containing /.
(3.3 Release #0.)

I tell sysinstall that I ONLY want to deal with wd2,
and tell it to delete the partition on wd2,
reallocate all of it compatibly, to use booteasy,
and set all of the disk to be used at /.
I tell it I only want to do a minimal install.

What I get is (a) the current running /bin gets rewritten,
(b) nothing at all happens to wd2, (c) the current system's
root .cshrc and /etc/passwd get rewritten. Not what I wanted,
not what I expected, and not intuitive - since if I did not
name wd0 in the sysinstall operation, I wouldn't expect
anything to happen to anything contained on wd0, be that the
current root or otherwise. I named wd2 and labeled it, as
the /target of the operation/, but sysinstall paid this
no heed.

I would like /stand/sysinstall to understand what it /appears/
I am telling it - what disk do you want to use? wd2, and
use all of it for /. Not the / that I am running now; the /
that I hope to use /stand/sysinstall to install. Given that
no changes were made to wd2 after the operation completes,
and wd0's /bin and files in /etc and /root are rewritten
on wd0, perhaps either options can be provided to do what
it seems intuitive to me I am actually asking for - or a
message can be generated telling me what it will do is not
what it suggests that it would do. Namely, that I can use
/stand/sysinstall ONLY to modify the running system -
and if I am running on an installed, running system, then
selecting disks to use either has no effect, or will be
ignored. But then after the system is up and running,
why does sysinstall /offer/ the disk choice, if it will
ignore the choice I make?

Perhaps the sysinstall one uses to install should not be
the same one installed for subsequent use on a running
system. As is, sysinstall's menus imply that sysinstall
can be used to generate new, self-consistent systems at
will on various combinations of partitions, but this is
not true, and its behavior runs contrary to the choices
the user makes - in potentially destructive ways.

-ecsd


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