This solves a recurring problem with port-alpha.

	[ all about the cool init(8)-makes-cool-mfs-/dev-for-you ]

 > On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Jason Thorpe wrote:
 > 
 > > On Mon, 11 Aug 1997 christos@deshaw.com (Christos Zoulas) wrote:
 > > 
 > >  > | Perhaps the test in init should not be "if root is msdosfs" but
 > >  > | something more general-purpose, like "if /dev/console does not exist"
 > >  > | (for example), or even "if /etc/MAKEDEV exists" or whatever.
 > >  > 
 > >  > I had it this way before and Jason asked me to add the msdosfs check.
 > > 
 > > I suppose we could just check against /dev/console, but I'm concerned
 > > about "what if the file system got trashed?"
 > > 
 > 	Given that if /dev/console does not exist you will not be able to
 > 	boot, trying the mfs approach should be a win (or no worse) in
 > 	just about any situation.
 > 	If the filesystem is corrupted to the extent that the the mfs
 > 	setup fails, you haven't lost anything more than before; but if
 > 	the mfs succeeds, you might have a fighting chance of now
 > 	repairing the damage.
 > 	
 > 	If someone forgot to populate dev, then it makes it more
 > 	interesting to do so ('umount -f /dev ; /dev/MAKEDEV all' ),
 > 	but you still win... 
 > 
 > 		David/abs


I think this is the coolest feature. I was going to implement this
and imagine my surprise to see it already there!

My original idea was for port-alpha; it seems like this should very
neatly get around the problem where OSF/1 (OK, DU) can't export a
NetBSD /dev due to device number mangling on the server.

It is certainly no big deal to delete the ifdef and recompile, but
the feature does have unexpected utility...
----------------------
Ross Harvey	Avalon Computer Systems, Inc.		  ross@teraflop.com
		Santa Barbara	 		    http://www.teraflop.com