From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Thu Aug 27 23:49:42 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 670EC9C3D86 for ; Thu, 27 Aug 2015 23:49:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from quartz@sneakertech.com) Received: from douhisi.pair.com (douhisi.pair.com [209.68.5.179]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 47EABA5E for ; Thu, 27 Aug 2015 23:49:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from quartz@sneakertech.com) Received: from [10.2.2.1] (pool-173-48-121-235.bstnma.fios.verizon.net [173.48.121.235]) by douhisi.pair.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 3382F3F6D0; Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:49:40 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <55DFA213.4030304@sneakertech.com> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:49:39 -0400 From: Quartz MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Polytropon CC: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Stop using a SATA drive References: <20150824214252.53aa04c6.freebsd@edvax.de> <55DEF869.1010202@sneakertech.com> <20150828000118.31f33a35.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20150828000118.31f33a35.freebsd@edvax.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 23:49:42 -0000 > That would surely be possible if the device in question > would implement a proper reaction to the "eject" command. > If it does, and how it does it, is up to the manufacturer. > Let's say you send the "eject" command to the drive - the > firmware then says goodbye to the host - the device file > disappears. ---- > Yes - mostly the software inside the device, which we > commonly call firmware. On USB, and to a certain extent, > on SATA, the device identifies to the system and enters > a communication with it: stating what device class, who > built it, which model, what capabilities are available > and so on. If the firmware is able to delete that > connection (which is, after all, a _data_ exchange, > not primarily an electric connection), the OS would > act accordingly by removing the device file entry. This line of reasoning doesn't make any sense, or at least it's not related to what I was talking about. Let me try phrasing it a different way: 'diskutil eject foo' will kick the disk off an OSX system and remove its entry from /dev, and this functionality works across all devices and adapters regardless of make or model. Whatever the 'eject' command is doing, it's clearly entirely software side within the OS*. Being software, FreeBSD should be capable of the same, especially considering both OSs have such a close common heritage. *(unless you're claiming all devices everywhere have implemented mac-specific commands in their firmware, but that wouldn't really make sense either since if it's everywhere any other OS could use it too)