On: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 16:53:55 -0700, Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
writes:

>It follows the same rules as the old "wildcarded swap" device used to...
>
>        If root device is a disk, dumps go on partition 'b' of that
>        disk.  Else, disable dumps.
>
>Swap is now totally unrelated to dumps.


Jason,

Does the kernel _really_ do a coredump dump on a b partition,
regardless of the partition type in the disklabel?

Since swap is now optional, reserving b partitions for swap is
presumably optional. Therefore reserving B partitions for _dumps_
(which is, historically, just a side-effect of them being swap
devices) should be optional too.

I think it'd be safer and more correct to only do wildcarded dumps
onto B partitions that are labelled as type `swap'.

Otherwise,

> config netbsd root on ? type ? dumps on ?
>         - wildcarded root, fstype, and dump device
> 

might dump on a B partition that's in use as a filesystem, and that
would be a bug.