Subject: Re: NOTICE: serious fsirand(8) bug
To: None <laine@morningstar.com>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: current-users
Date: 07/09/1997 10:21:24
On Wed, 09 Jul 1997 18:46:54 GMT 
 laine@MorningStar.Com (Laine Stump) wrote:

 > >fsirand(8) had a serious bug that would cause it to damage file
 > >systems larger than 4GB.  I've fixed this, and the change should show
 > >up in tonight's update.
 > 
 > 1) Was this a problem in 1.2G?

Yes... of course, since we're still at 1.2G, it's now fixed in 1.2G :-)

 > 2) Is it a problem with remote NFS filesystems, or only local
 > filesystems?

It affects file systems _only_ if you run fsirand(8) on them... essentially,
an offset would wrap over due to a type botch, and stop on data that might
have been on the disk.

You can, of course, only update the fsirand(8) program itself if you
want to run it on your file systems.  Or, you won't have a problem if
you don't run fsirand(8) on them.

fsirand(8) is a program that randomizes the inode generation numbers on
ffs file systems.

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939