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X-Authentication-Warning: slinky.cs.nyu.edu: pechtcha owned process doing -bs
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 13:24:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
To: Joaquin <winminion AT realmspace DOT com>
cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: RE: Where are mount points stored?
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Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.56.0312061310210.16580@slinky.cs.nyu.edu>
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Joaquin,

If they are different, it's a bug in "mount" and should be reported.
The only case in which this would come up is diagnosing some problem with
a Cygwin installation, which would (hopefully) at some point involve the
output of "cygcheck -svr", as requested in the problem reporting
guidelines.  The "-r" flag to cygcheck asks it to dump the relevant
registry keys, so developers *will* be aware of any discrepancy.

As for keeping people ignorant, dangerous knowledge is worse than
ignorance - knowing that the mounts are stored in the registry looks to
some people to be an invitation to go mock around with the registry, and
the possibility of screwing up their installation is very real.  Note that
I did answer your question, albeit with a disclaimer.

Also, it may have come across that I think curiousity is bad, when, in
fact, I think that's what produces new experts in any particular subject.
However, the curious are always welcome to see the source (see
<http://cygwin.com/cvs.html> for details).
	Igor

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003, Joaquin wrote:

> Well.  What happens if the "mount" and reg query are different?  In QA,
> I heard so many times that "It should have worked!?".  Also, knowing how
> things work increases understanding, so that I can peak at how other
> things work.  Anyways, I don't advise keeping people ignorant as
> practice.  It's better to encourage people to think for themselves and
> explore, so they don't come begging for help all the time, at least
> that's what I try to encourage... (especially in IT)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Igor Pechtchanski [mailto:pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu]
> > Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 6:38 AM
> > To: Joaquin
> > Cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
> > Subject: RE: Where are mount points stored?
> >
> >
> > Ok, so (1) is curiousity.  As for (2), why not simply run
> > "mount" instead of the reg query?  It will give you the same
> > exact information.
> >       Igor
> >
> > On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Joaquin wrote:
> >
> > > No.  For one (1) I don't want to be ignorant and want to learn how
> > > things work.  Secondly (2) this helps me find diagnose and isolate
> > > problems.  I found weird behavior with Japanese Windows XP Home,
> > > where a mount point is being auto-created.  This would help me
> > > diagnose exactly when this is happening.  I could do a reg query
> > > between operations.
> > >
> > >   - Joaquin
> > >
> > >
> > > > The main question is (seriously): why do you care?  If it's simply
> > > > to satisfy your curiousity, the mounts are stored (for the moment)
> > > > in registry keys, as you could have found out by reading the
> > > > Cygwin sources (namely winsup/cygwin/path.cc).  However, when
> > > > people find this out they usually start wanting to go into the
> > > > registry and change the mounts there, and that's unacceptable[*].
> > > > So, here's a big DISCLAIMER: do not attempt to change the mounts
> > > > via regedit or other registry editing software. Always use "mount"
> > > > to change your mounts. That way, you won't be blindsided when
> > > > mounts do move to /etc/fstab or something.
> > > >       Igor
> > > > [*] The only legitimate use of the registry mount knowledge
> > > > that I can think of is checking whether there are user mounts
> > > > for the SYSTEM user (there shouldn't be).

-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"I have since come to realize that being between your mentor and his route
to the bathroom is a major career booster."  -- Patrick Naughton

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