Frans, all I know is documented in
http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-mdadm/mdadm.git;a=blob;f=debian/FAQ,
item 3.
Anything else, Neil (on Cc) will have to explain... full mail
further down, with more inline comments from me.
also sprach Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> [2008.04.22.1725 +0200]:
> Hi Martin,
>
> Over the past few weeks I've solved several issues in D-I related to the use
> of /dev/mdX versus /dev/md/X and I've been wondering what the official
> status is of both as it seems there are at least some inconsistencies.
>
> Partman currently prefers the use of /dev/md/X and uses that when creating
> new RAID devices. This results in both /dev/md/X and /dev/mdX block device
> files being created.
The latter should be symlinks.
> I've been working on the assumption that /dev/md/X is the "newer" form and
> that the intention is to transition to that. Is that correct?
Sort of. /dev/md/* corresponds to version-1 superblocks, which are
supposed to be default in the future, but still are not. I suggest
you ensure that partman creates version-0 superblocks for now, until
upstream changes the default.
But in any case, mdadm should not create /dev/md/X files if you tell
it to create /dev/mdX instead (passing --auto=yes).
> Here are some of the inconsistencies I've noticed:
> - /dev/mdX and /dev/md/X are created with different permissions
This is weird. All I've ever seen were /dev/mdX symlinks to
/dev/md/X. Are you sure those are created by the same process?
> - if a new RAID device is created using /dev/mdX, the "new" block device
> files are _not_ created
> - 'mdadm --examine --scan --config=partitions' outputs the "old" block
> device names which again means that the "new" block devices are not
> created if that is used as input to assemble existing RAID devices
>
> Especially the last issue affected partman when the system being installed
> had a pre-existing RAID partition setup. I've now worked around that in
> mdcfg by converting old to new using sed before doing the assemble.
>
> Could you provide some insight into what the current status is from an mdadm
> (and maybe kernel) upstream PoV and how the transition is expected to
> proceed?
Neil?
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org>
: :' : proud Debian developer, author, administrator, and user
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