Why I don't like UUIDs (Re: can't mount sdf1 in stretch, gparted claims its fat32)
>> Me too, so I usually label the permanent stuff at least. UUID's can and
>> will change for no detectable reason.
> For those reading along or finding this in search results: no, filesystem
> UUIDs don't change for no detectable reason. Don't implement anything based
> on this theory.
What he meant is that filesystem UUIDs are (re)created automatically
based on a heuristic of what it means for a filesystem to be "the same".
This heuristic can be wrong in both directions: sometimes you delete and
create a new filesystem which is supposed to "be" the same filesystem as
before (but gets a new UUID), and other times you copy a filesystem so
as to get "another one" (but it keeps its UUID).
While I'm sure this can be managed by explicitly setting UUIDs, I've
found it much more pleasant to manage explicit names (I personally
prefer LVM names over filesystem labels, but filesystem labels work well
for those filesystems I don't put under LVM). Not only I can pronounce
them and they carry meaning, but they tend to be much more visible (and
hence easier to manipulate).
Stefan
PS: The only problem with LVM names is that Linux doesn't let you rename
a volume group while it's active (at least last time I tried), which
makes it painful to rename the volume group in which lives your root partition.
Reply to: