From: jjf AT bcs DOT org DOT uk (J. J. Farrell) Subject: Re: mounts, ls, and filename completion 13 Aug 1998 09:02:27 -0700 Message-ID: <199808122337.QAA18466.cygnus.gnu-win32@aleph.ssd.hal.com> References: <19980812194730 DOT 11186 DOT rocketmail AT send103 DOT yahoomail DOT com> Reply-To: jjf AT bcs DOT org DOT uk (J. J. Farrell) Content-Type: text To: earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com Cc: lhall AT rfk DOT com, pete AT horus DOT cix DOT co DOT uk, jjf AT bcs DOT org DOT uk, john_r_velman AT mail DOT hac DOT com, gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com > From earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com Wed Aug 12 12:53:26 1998 > > When you `mount -b D:/ /foo' the mounted reference is a logical > pointer to the D:/ root directory _NOT_ to the directory /foo on D:. > Therefore, when you do `ls /foo' you will also see the /foo directory > and you would be able to do `cd /foo/foo'. That's only true if / is already mounted on d:\; it would be a silly thing to do, and it might be confusing - but then again, if people insist on doing silly things, they should expect to be confused! > Let us suppose that the `/' root directory is mounted to c:\ and that > /foo resides on c:\. Let us now suppose you `mount -b D:/ /foo'. You > still have a logical pointer to the D:/ root directory and filesystem > commands to /foo will look at the D:/ root directory and c:/foo will > not be used (usually). Which is exactly what should happen - isn't that the whole point of mount? > As for confusing cygwin32, which one is it supposed to use? The mounted filesystem - the underlying directory should be entirely hidden. > It will > attempt to use the logical pointer /foo and usually does; however, it > is possible for it to use the physical directory /foo and occasionally > does. When I was testing to respond to your querys, cygwin32 gave me > "permission denied" errors accessing such a mounted directory. These occasions sound like bugs in cygwin32. > To help you understand the cygwin mount table, think of it more as a > symbolic link table than as a table of directories available for use > by the user. To help you further understand, remember that you are > emulating UNIX, not using UNIX and that you are really using WIN32. > > Hope this helps, Thanks, but I think we're at cross-purposes to some extent; you seem to be objecting to the fact that mount emulates its UNIX equivalent as well as allowing various other things such as mounting on non-existent mount points. I think things might be more consistent and less confusing if mount's syntax were tightened up to be closer to UNIX - the first example you give above couldn't happen because it wouldn't let you mount d:\ more than once, and the problems which have been seen caused by mounting on non-existent mount points couldn't happen. Regards, jjf - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".