Filesystem standard: mount points like /cdrom and /floppy
Here's a message I sent to the editor of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Any comments? Paul ----- The description of the root filesystem in the version 2.2 final Filesystem Hierarchy Standard doesn't seem to account for the very common and useful practice of providing mount points for devices in the root directory. The most common ones are /cdrom and /floppy. These are, of course, empty directories until something is mounted to them, but they normally exist in the root directory even when nothing is mounted to them. Another example is /net, used by Linux automounting software as an access point for remote filesystems. An oddity in the description is that the Rationale contains a very strong statement that software must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory, but that statement is not repeated outside of the Rationale. Presumably nothing in the Rationale is normative; its only purpose is to provide motivation for the rest of the text. Here's a rough cut at some text you might want to include: The root directory may also contain directories and subdirectories intended to be used for mount points of devices, e.g., /cdrom and /floppy. These directories and subdirectories must not contain ordinary files. Aside from these, the root directory must not contain any files or directories not enumerated here. Paul Abrahams
On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 02:35:18PM -0400, Paul Abrahams wrote:
Here's a message I sent to the editor of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Any comments?
Paul
-----
The description of the root filesystem in the version 2.2 final Filesystem Hierarchy Standard doesn't seem to account for the very common and useful practice of providing mount points for devices in the root directory. The most common ones are /cdrom and /floppy. These are, of course, empty directories until something is mounted to them, but they normally exist in the root directory even when nothing is mounted to them. Another example is /net, used by Linux automounting software as an access point for remote filesystems.
An oddity in the description is that the Rationale contains a very strong statement that software must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory, but that statement is not repeated outside of the Rationale. Presumably nothing in the Rationale is normative; its only purpose is to provide motivation for the rest of the text.
Here's a rough cut at some text you might want to include:
The root directory may also contain directories and subdirectories intended to be used for mount points of devices, e.g., /cdrom and /floppy. These directories and subdirectories must not contain ordinary files. Aside from these, the root directory must not contain any files or directories not enumerated here.
Paul Abrahams
Mmm..isn't there this mysterious /media directory/mount-point that popped it's head up in 7(.1 .2 ??) .. I believe that is mount for "removable" media .. -- Regards Cliff
On Thursday 20 September 2001 6:35 pm, Paul Abrahams wrote:
Here's a message I sent to the editor of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Any comments?
Paul
-----
The description of the root filesystem in the version 2.2 final Filesystem Hierarchy Standard doesn't seem to account for the very common and useful practice of providing mount points for devices in the root directory. The most common ones are /cdrom and /floppy. These are, of course, empty directories until something is mounted to them, but they normally exist in the root directory even when nothing is mounted to them. Another example is /net, used by Linux automounting software as an access point for remote filesystems.
An oddity in the description is that the Rationale contains a very strong statement that software must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory, but that statement is not repeated outside of the Rationale. Presumably nothing in the Rationale is normative; its only purpose is to provide motivation for the rest of the text.
Here's a rough cut at some text you might want to include:
The root directory may also contain directories and subdirectories intended to be used for mount points of devices, e.g., /cdrom and /floppy. These directories and subdirectories must not contain ordinary files. Aside from these, the root directory must not contain any files or directories not enumerated here.
The FSH and indeed LSB aim to guarantee compatability between different Linux distributions. The decision was that all removable _media_ be accessible under /media. The advantage of this is that we won't see new devices cluttering / (root), e.g. cdrecorder, zip, dvd-whatever. The important thing here is that a decision to standardise has been made, which can only benefit developer and end-user alike. M
Martin Webster wrote:
On Thursday 20 September 2001 6:35 pm, Paul Abrahams wrote:
Here's a message I sent to the editor of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Any comments?
Paul
-----
The description of the root filesystem in the version 2.2 final Filesystem Hierarchy Standard doesn't seem to account for the very common and useful practice of providing mount points for devices in the root directory. The most common ones are /cdrom and /floppy. These are, of course, empty directories until something is mounted to them, but they normally exist in the root directory even when nothing is mounted to them. Another example is /net, used by Linux automounting software as an access point for remote filesystems.
An oddity in the description is that the Rationale contains a very strong statement that software must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory, but that statement is not repeated outside of the Rationale. Presumably nothing in the Rationale is normative; its only purpose is to provide motivation for the rest of the text.
Here's a rough cut at some text you might want to include:
The root directory may also contain directories and subdirectories intended to be used for mount points of devices, e.g., /cdrom and /floppy. These directories and subdirectories must not contain ordinary files. Aside from these, the root directory must not contain any files or directories not enumerated here.
The FSH and indeed LSB aim to guarantee compatability between different Linux distributions. The decision was that all removable _media_ be accessible under /media. The advantage of this is that we won't see new devices cluttering / (root), e.g. cdrecorder, zip, dvd-whatever.
The important thing here is that a decision to standardise has been made, which can only benefit developer and end-user alike.
That's perfectly reasonable -- but the FSH doesn't mention /media. Paul
On Thursday 20 September 2001 10:39 pm, Paul Abrahams wrote:
Martin Webster wrote:
On Thursday 20 September 2001 6:35 pm, Paul Abrahams wrote:
Here's a message I sent to the editor of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Any comments?
Paul
-----
The description of the root filesystem in the version 2.2 final Filesystem Hierarchy Standard doesn't seem to account for the very common and useful practice of providing mount points for devices in the root directory. The most common ones are /cdrom and /floppy. These are, of course, empty directories until something is mounted to them, but they normally exist in the root directory even when nothing is mounted to them. Another example is /net, used by Linux automounting software as an access point for remote filesystems.
An oddity in the description is that the Rationale contains a very strong statement that software must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory, but that statement is not repeated outside of the Rationale. Presumably nothing in the Rationale is normative; its only purpose is to provide motivation for the rest of the text.
Here's a rough cut at some text you might want to include:
The root directory may also contain directories and subdirectories intended to be used for mount points of devices, e.g., /cdrom and /floppy. These directories and subdirectories must not contain ordinary files. Aside from these, the root directory must not contain any files or directories not enumerated here.
The FSH and indeed LSB aim to guarantee compatability between
different Linux
distributions. The decision was that all removable _media_ be accessible under /media. The advantage of this is that we won't see new devices cluttering / (root), e.g. cdrecorder, zip, dvd-whatever.
The important thing here is that a decision to standardise has been made, which can only benefit developer and end-user alike.
That's perfectly reasonable -- but the FSH doesn't mention /media.
True, but that's the reason SuSE provides in their 7.2 Update manual. Version 2.2 of the FHS is dated May; didn't SuSE 7.2 come out June/July? I expect it will show in later versions. M
On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Martin Webster wrote:
The important thing here is that a decision to standardise has been made, which can only benefit developer and end-user alike.
That's perfectly reasonable -- but the FSH doesn't mention /media.
True, but that's the reason SuSE provides in their 7.2 Update manual. Version 2.2 of the FHS is dated May; didn't SuSE 7.2 come out June/July? I expect it will show in later versions.
Well, actually in was in there, but someone decided to pull it back out before releasing the final 2.2 version. Seems we were a bit too fast in implementing /media... But /cdrom and /floppy were not defined as well, so it does not really matter. This is one of the FHS issues that come up and are being debated every once in a while and it seems like the FHS people will never actually define it. Unfortunately the FHS does not have a clear process for defining and voting for such things. They don't even have a list archive... But I should stop ranting. Bye, LenZ -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lenz Grimmer SuSE GmbH mailto:grimmer@suse.de Schanzaeckerstr. 10 http://www.suse.de/~grimmer/ 90443 Nuernberg, Germany This is the voice of world control. I have brought peace
Lenz Grimmer wrote:
On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Martin Webster wrote:
The important thing here is that a decision to standardise has been made, which can only benefit developer and end-user alike.
That's perfectly reasonable -- but the FSH doesn't mention /media.
True, but that's the reason SuSE provides in their 7.2 Update manual. Version 2.2 of the FHS is dated May; didn't SuSE 7.2 come out June/July? I expect it will show in later versions.
Well, actually in was in there, but someone decided to pull it back out before releasing the final 2.2 version. Seems we were a bit too fast in implementing /media... But /cdrom and /floppy were not defined as well, so it does not really matter.
This is one of the FHS issues that come up and are being debated every once in a while and it seems like the FHS people will never actually define it. Unfortunately the FHS does not have a clear process for defining and voting for such things. They don't even have a list archive... But I should stop ranting.
That's very disappointing. Somehow I had more faith in the process that created and maintains the FHS. (My letter to the FHS editor has gone unanswered.) There's an obvious hole in the standard, since as it currently reads it provides *no* place to mount auxiliary devices. There's plenty of room for debate about the right mount point --- /media or the root --- but not much, I'd hope, about the need for some mount point. And then there's the other hole I noticed -- the statement that "nothing not listed can be placed in the root" is in the Rationale but not in the normative (operative) part. Paul
participants (4)
-
Cliff Sarginson -
Lenz Grimmer -
Martin Webster -
Paul Abrahams