Subject: Re: Addition to force open to open only regular files
To: NetBSD Kernel Technical Discussion List <tech-kern@netbsd.org>
From: Jukka Marin <jmarin@pyy.jmp.fi>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/16/2000 08:17:26
On Thu, Nov 16, 2000 at 12:41:58AM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> I'm not so worried about a tape rewinding.  Sure it's a bit of a pain in
> the butt, especially if it happens at an extremely inopportune time.
> 
> However it's quite likely that anything which could be adversely
> affected by such an operation will have the device open already, in
> which case either the second open will be failed (EBUSY) or the errant
> close will not do anything because it's not the last close (or if it is
> the last close then it'll only delay the rewind a bit).
> 
> So, yeah, scripts and programs that mess around with the tape could be
> fooled because they don't keep the device open all the time.  The risks
> of such a vulnerability are, I think, relatively low.

Err.  I want to be able to put several tarballs on one tape.  And Amanda
depends on the norewind tape device, too.  Please don't break the current
behaviour!

  -jm