From: Eric Youngdale (eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil)
Date: 01/29/93


From: eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil (Eric Youngdale)
Subject: Re: Bernoulli/SyQuest
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 19:01:18 GMT

In article <1993Jan30.003204.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> smackinla@cc.curtin.edu.au (Pat Mackinlay) writes:
>> Then is it possible to change cartridges while up, if they are partitioned
>> the same?
>
>Probably possible, but generally not a good idea. What really needs to happen
>is for someone to hack the mount code to try the BLKRRPART ioctl on a device
>that's about to be mounted. This should probably not return an error if the
>call fails with -EINVAL, as not all device drivers support this yet
>(although most do). A message saying the call has been successful could be
>helpful however...

        NO NO NO NO!!!!!! The kernel should automatically detect disk changes
and *automatically* reread the partition table. There should be no need to
change anything. If the automatic reread of the partition table fails on any
system, I would like to know about it, because this is a BUG, not a feature.
I have reports that this does work on some systems, and I have had no reports
of it failing to work on any system.

        I added the partition table reread *specifically* for removable disks.
The ioctl was added as an afterthought.

-Eric

-- 
A host is a host from coast to coast.....eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).................................
is busy, hung or dead................................Eric Youngdale