Subject: Re: Patch to disallow mounts of unclean FFS unless forced
To: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>
From: Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU>
List: tech-kern
Date: 10/15/2003 04:06:48
    Date:        Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:54:30 -0700
    From:        Jason Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>
    Message-ID:  <9B679C26-FE88-11D7-B507-000A957650EC@wasabisystems.com>

  | Use the -f flag to force the mount.

But that is root only - users are supposed (with the right sysctl setting)
to be able to mount too.

  | Right now, it's incredibly easy to accidentally mount an unclean file 
  | system that can cause the kernel to panic.  I'm trying to make it 
  | harder to have the accident happen.

But isn't the right fix to make sure that the kernel correctly checks
its data before using it?   And isn't NetBSD supposed to be all about
doing the right fix, not just the expedient one?

If by your proposed change you actually reduce the number of system panics,
won't you theyeby be reducing the number of opportunities to encounter the
underlying bugs that would cause those panics, and hence to get them fixed?

Furthermore, the "clean" flag is just a bit in the filesystem, having it
set guarantees nothing (though for sure in common cases it helps).

kre