From owner-cvs-src@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 18 09:25:26 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: cvs-src@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3461E16A4B3; Sat, 18 Oct 2003 09:25:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from kientzle.com (h-66-166-149-50.SNVACAID.covad.net [66.166.149.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 06A1443F93; Sat, 18 Oct 2003 09:25:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kientzle@acm.org) Received: from acm.org ([66.166.149.54]) by kientzle.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9IGPOkX084222; Sat, 18 Oct 2003 09:25:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kientzle@acm.org) Message-ID: <3F916974.5030502@acm.org> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 09:25:24 -0700 From: Tim Kientzle User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20031006 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Poul-Henning Kamp References: <7842.1066492471@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: <7842.1066492471@critter.freebsd.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: cvs-all@FreeBSD.org cc: cvs-src@FreeBSD.org cc: src-committers@FreeBSD.org cc: Marc Fonvieille cc: obrien@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/share/man/man4 umass.4 X-BeenThere: cvs-src@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: kientzle@acm.org List-Id: CVS commit messages for the src tree List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 16:25:26 -0000 Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > In message <3F9161AB.5080608@acm.org>, Tim Kientzle writes: >>Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: >>>In message <20031017220732.GA61428@dragon.nuxi.com>, "David O'Brien" writes: >>> >>>>>I'm starting the s/disklabel/bsdlabel/ update in our manual pages. >>>>>Any comment, opinion, etc...? >>>> >>>>Why?!?!? bsdlabel is MD and is most likely the wrong thing for Sun's. >>>>disklable is our MI name. >>> >>>You are just about as wrong as you can be there David. >>> >>>$ which sunlabel >>>/sbin/sunlabel >> >> Okay, Poul-Henning, I give up. You've shown >>that /sbin/sunlabel exists, and use that as proof that "bsdlabel" >>is the right way to label a Sun disk? > > No, to show that disklabel isn't the right one on any platform. Okay, I clearly missed something, then. I thought that the intent of the 'disklabel' name (which is linked to 'bsdlabel' on i386, pc98, and amd64) was to provide an easy handle for the default label program for the current platform. Apparently, David thinks so, too. Is the "disklabel" name merely a transition-aid? Is it scheduled to go away? I ask because what started this thread was a comment about documentation. We either have: * A 'disklabel' name that is "the default label program for this platform." In that case, the man pages need to be checked to ensure that they use 'disklabel' in the generic case, and we need a 'disklabel.1' man page that clearly states that 'disklabel' is a synonym for different programs on different platforms. * No such default name. In that case, the docs could get pretty ugly if we have to say things like "... after using fdisk, you need to label the disk with bsdlabel, sunlabel, foolabel, or xyzlabel, depending on your platform and disk-labelling preferences." I'm not sure I want to be the one who has to explain that one. In any case, it seems that David was right that a global s/disklabel/bsdlabel/ is a bad idea. Hmmmm.... An alternative might be to have a "disklabel" wrapper along the lines of "mount" or "fsck" that accepts an argument for which disklabel sub-program to run, with the default varying by platform. That would give a single interface (easier to document) that allows savvy users to select the labelling format. It also opens the door for adding format-detection intelligence (i.e., look at the current disk label and use that format). Of course, I suppose one could argue that all disk label management should be pushed down into the kernel somehow. Wish I had time to figure out how that might work. Tim Kientzle