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Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 12:21:42 -0500
To: ehud AT unix DOT simonwiesel DOT co DOT il
From: "Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)" <lhall AT rfk DOT com>
Subject: Re: 1.1.7:mount and ls problem
Cc: lowella AT serv DOT net, cygwin AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
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At 11:56 AM 1/24/2001, Ehud Karni wrote:
> >          cd /
> >          mkdir e
> >          mount e: /e
> > All is well -- e shows up in both an ls ( as e) and mount (as e:  /e).
> > 
> >          mount f: /f
> > I get the error:
> >          mount: warning - /f does not exist
> > but mount shows
> >          f:   f/ . . .
> > and ls doesn't show f.
> > 
> > If I do mkdir f, I get:
> >          mkdir: cannot make directory `f': File exists
>  
>On UNIX systems, you can NOT mount on non-existing directory.
>
>I think Cygwin can adopt this behavior and refuse to mount when the
>directory is missing. There are 2 ways to accomplish this:
>     1. Create the directory (silently or with a message).
>     2. Produce an  error and do not mount.
>The 2nd approach has the possible problem for mounts that was done
>previously (saved in the registry) - the mount directory may be erased
>by a non Cygwin program. In that case I will produce an error message
>every time the DLL try to use this mount, and ignore it (but not
>delete it from the registry).


This may be an issue.  The simple approach for handling this here would
be do 1, although one could always see what UNIX/Linux does in these cases
too.  As I recall, UNIX/Linux simply displays an error if the directory to
mount to is removed.  I see no real problem with supporting this approach
either.
  

>I don't know the reasons of the Cygwin developers for choosing the
>current behavior but I'm sure they had something in mind if they
>decided to deviate from standard UNIX practice.


Yes, I'm sure there was a reason.  It may have just been for "expediency".
In any case, its not worth speculating unless someone plans to take up the
task.



Larry Hall                              lhall AT rfk DOT com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
118 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX



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