[comp.bugs.sys5] /etc/mountall anomaly

monte@oblio.UUCP (Monte Pickard) (12/19/86)

Whether this is a bug or not, users should beware.

/etc/mountall uses fstab as standard input and will fsck any
file system that needs to be repaired and then mount it.  If the
file system is large enough to require a temporary file in order
for fsck to check it, fsck reads from the standard input to get
the file to use.  Unforunately the next entry in fstab is another
file system, so fsck uses it as the temporary file, ergo that
file system is destroyed.

We fix it by changing the mountall fsck parameters to include 
the assignment of a temporary file, "-t /fsck.tmp".  Another
way may be to add the file name after the file system name in
fstab, although fstab(4) does not specify that you can or should
do this.

Regardless, this could be a 'hidden' problem for some.  For us
it would wipe out our 'sccs' file system everytime we went
init state 2 and the large file system required fsck to be run.

Monte Pickard - Counterpoint Computers