Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2023 08:48:34 -0600 From: robert@rrbrussell.com To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ZFS upgrade loader actions -- is it possible to check before reboot if your system will reboot cleanly? Message-ID: <be39820c-dde4-4ec2-b783-44a3f6d93be5@app.fastmail.com> In-Reply-To: <F972B2CC-62E3-4724-B3ED-752CDA301B9C@gushi.org> References: <F972B2CC-62E3-4724-B3ED-752CDA301B9C@gushi.org>
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On Fri, Nov 24, 2023, at 18:40, Dan Mahoney (Ports) wrote: > I was reading a couple recent threads (one about upgrading from 13.2 t= o 14) and another more virtiolic > thread about how terrible, awful, no-good our documentation is. I don= =E2=80=99t agree with this. =20 >=20 > I shied away from Linux for years because of nonfunctional man pages, = or man pages that someone > bothered to write, but then to only point to a postscript file on disk= , or to point at an =E2=80=9Cinfo=E2=80=9D file. > I mused regularly that it=E2=80=99s sad that =E2=80=9CThe Linux Docume= ntation Project=E2=80=9D website is in fact a whole > different website from =E2=80=9CThe Linux Project=E2=80=9D=E2=80=A6or = any hundred of Linux Projects. =20 >=20 > Anyway, both threads talked about zpool upgrades and needing to update= your bootloader. I was recently > bitten by this, requiring my datacenter to put a physical disc in a dr= ive for me to recover from. (And > I even had to ship them a USB cdrom drive =E2=80=94 don=E2=80=99t get = me started on supermicro=E2=80=99s virtual media > implementation. it=E2=80=99s bad). >=20 > I understand that printing the raw commands to upgrade your boot loade= r (and/or your pmbr) as part of > the output of a successful =E2=80=9Czpool upgrade=E2=80=9D is probably= a bad idea, as the commands are not > one-size-fits-all, but having a special manpage for this process, spec= ifically (and having zpool > upgrade point at that page) might be useful.=20 >=20 > If the handbook doesn=E2=80=99t say something about this process, then= it should as well. >=20 > But also, it would be really nice to be able to poll the version of th= e various components that are > actually installed on the system (the boot loader, and even the pmbr i= f you have one) and see if > they=E2=80=99re current and can support the current version of your bo= ot pool. >=20 > I don=E2=80=99t know if this is possible. Gpart bootcode, for example= , only has a command to *install* the > bootcode, not read it back. Since the loader and the mbr are tiny, hi= ghly optimized pieces of code, I > don=E2=80=99t know if there are any strings that can be examined to se= e if they match the running system. But > if the tools don=E2=80=99t exist, they should =E2=80=94 even absent an= y version strings, if nothing else, gpart > bootcode should be able to non-intrusively compare a file with the alr= eady existing one. >=20 > Does anyone know for sure? >=20 > -Dan There are at least 4 different types of documentation. * Developer API documentation * User interface documentation * How to/Example documentation * FAQs >From my point of view Linux is better bottom up and FreeBSD is better to= p down. Though that is an issue for your request because the current boo= t loader documentation definitely has a more developer bent to it.
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