NetBSD Problem Report #18366

Received: (qmail 6519 invoked by uid 605); 21 Sep 2002 21:28:03 -0000
Message-Id: <200209212127.g8LLRxD08101@above.proper.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:27:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: phoffman@above.proper.com
Sender: gnats-bugs-owner@netbsd.org
Reply-To: phoffman@above.proper.com
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.netbsd.org
Subject: Installing 1.6 messes with things in /var
X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.95

>Number:         18366
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       Installing 1.6 messes with things in /var
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Sep 21 21:29:01 +0000 2002
>Closed-Date:    
>Last-Modified:  Wed Oct 09 17:36:03 +0000 2002
>Originator:     phoffman@proper.com
>Release:        NetBSD 1.6
>Organization:

>Environment:


System: NetBSD above.proper.com 1.6 NetBSD 1.6 (GENERIC) #0: Sun Sep 8 19:43:40 UTC 2002 autobuild@tgm.daemon.org:/autobuild/i386/OBJ/autobuild/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC i386
Architecture: i386
Machine: i386
>Description:

I had /var/mail symlinked to /usr/mail (so that incoming mail didn't cause
/ to get full). I upgraded to 1.6 using the standard installer. When
I was finished, /var/mail was its own directory and the symlink was
gone. Of course, mail started flowing into new mailboxes in /var/mail.
>How-To-Repeat:

Trivial.
>Fix:

Change the installer script to not trash symlinks in /var. Also, maybe this
all should be documented in the install, specifically what other than
/etc gets messed with.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:

From: fair@netbsd.org
To: phoffman@proper.com
Cc: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/18366
Date: 9 Oct 2002 05:54:43 -0000

 you could partition your disk so that /var is a separate file system
 from the root - that is the intended layout.

From: Paul Hoffman <phoffman@proper.com>
To: fair@netbsd.org
Cc: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/18366
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 10:39:30 -0600

 At 5:54 AM +0000 10/9/02, fair@netbsd.org wrote:
 >you could partition your disk so that /var is a separate file system
 >from the root - that is the intended layout.

 Of course. But the installer should detect when that is not the case. 
 Not detecting that can have horrid results, yes?

From: "Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org>
To: Paul Hoffman <phoffman@proper.com>
Cc: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/18366 
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 10:13:30 -0700

 Actually, that depends on what use you make of the system; by default,
 the standard logs are compressed and rotated out to make sure that
 /var doesn't fill up, I think E-mail is the only thing in there by
 default that is allowed to grow without bound. The presumption is that
 you're going to read E-mail and make arrangements for any additional
 logs your use of the system generates (e.g. httpd) to be trimmed
 automatically - there are mechanisms provided to do that...

 I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea for the installer to warn the user
 that having root and /var in the same filesystem isn't a good idea.

 	Erik <fair@clock.org>

From: Paul Hoffman <phoffman@proper.com>
To: "Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org>
Cc: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: install/18366
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 11:24:54 -0600

 At 10:13 AM -0700 10/9/02, Erik E. Fair wrote:
 >I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea for the installer to warn the user
 >that having root and /var in the same filesystem isn't a good idea.

 I guess we'll agree to disagree here. I see no reason to, after 
 having detected that / and /var are on the same filesystem, do bad 
 things to /var (like wiping out all pending mail and logs).
>Unformatted:

Home	PR Database Search