[ale] /etc/mtab

Björn Gustafsson bg-ale at bjorng.net
Wed May 5 16:30:39 EDT 2010


/etc/mtab also predates /var/ if you want to get all historical about it.

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 4:10 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If /var is not mounted, LOTS of stuff is not working so I'm in runlevel 1 at
> that point :-)
>
> I'd even settle for a spot in /tmp.
>
> But not /etc. mtab is not used to configure anything. It is the report of a
> state. So the /proc/mounts (linked to /proc/self/mounts) is the only place
> it should exist from my thinking.
>
> Must be an _old_ carry over from way before /proc days.
>
> On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 3:46 PM, Dennis Ruzeski <denniruz at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So if /var was unmounted how would you write to it?
>>
>> On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 3:33 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > why is mtab in /etc as a file and not as just a symlink to someplace
>> > better
>> > like /var/<something>/mtab?
>> >
>> > Since it gets written to on any mount it seems to be more like "/var
>> > data"
>> > than a configuration file
>> >
>> > --
>> > James P. Kinney III
>> > Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
>> > Doing pretty well on all 3 pursuits
>
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
> Doing pretty well on all 3 pursuits

-- 
Björn Gustafsson



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