> > Okay, why ?? I'm open to reason. I seem to recall that this page, > > http://www.uow.edu.au/~andrewm/linux/ext3/ext3-usage.html, says to use > > 'auto'. I have to trust their opinion there... (btw, the page/server > > seems to be misconfigured at the moment... I'm getting a 'Forbidden' > > message) > > First: I prefer explicit to implicit assignments. Saying "mount this > puppy as ext3" means I know how it's going to be mounted, and will get > an explicit error if the prerequisites aren't met. The same logic says > that you shouldn't rely on operator precedence but make order explicit > with grouping operators (parentheses) when programming. > > The advantage of 'auto' _may_ be that this allows you to go back and > forth between kernels supporting ext3 and ext2. Though this probably > isn't a great idea of itself. Not sure what happens if you boot a > system with an ext3 rootfs that only supports ext2. > > Second: the default filesystem search order (the 'auto' option's got to > try things in some order) according to both the 'mount' manpage and > /proc/filesystems, puts ext2 before ext3, IIRC. This means that you > have to rely on other means (/etc/filesystems) to override the default > behavior. > > There's the possibility that the documentation is wrong or misleading. > The mount (1) manpage lists ext3 _after_ ext2 in discussion the 'auto' > fs type. Whether this implies search order is unclear. In any event, > I'd not want to rely on it in its current state. > > I had a recent email discussion with Dennis Powell (of LinuxPlanet) > concerning his issues with ext3fs support in SuSE in which he basically > (and rather rudely) told me I was flat wrong WRT specifying 'auto' as > the fs type. He didn't provide output of any of the diagnostic steps I > suggested (contents of /proc/filesystems and /etc/filesystems). > > I may be wrong regarding the default filesystem detection, but I > maintain that you're better off explicitly stating what it is that you > want, particularly for system partitions. I also seem to recall a discussion on this list a month or so ago in which the end result was someone saying that ext3,ext2 was the preferred mount option for this situation. The discussion is here: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2001/debian-user-200110/msg02191.html and the recommendation was made by Vineet. HTH, Steve -- Your object is to save the world, while still leading a pleasant life.
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