bcwipe won't wipe a block device...

[Bernd Walter]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 12:57:52PM -0500, Aaron Peterson wrote:
> I don't know if this is a problem specific to CURRENT or not, but bcwipe
> seems to do the right thing when wiping files.  however, when using the -b
> option to wipe an entire block device, there is an "Invalid Argument"
> error, and I don't understand exactly why...
> 
> fbsd52# bcwipe -bvmd /dev/da0
> Wipe /dev/da0 (y/[n]/a)?a
> Wiping device      /dev/da0
> Writing to /dev/da0: Invalid argument
> fbsd52# bcwipe -bvm3 /dev/fd0
> Wipe /dev/fd0 (y/[n]/a)?a
> Wiping device      /dev/fd0
> Writing to /dev/fd0: Invalid argument
> fbsd52#
> 
> these are examples of commands verbatim from the bcwipe man page...  The
> devices exist in /dev/, and there is a floppy in the drive...  This is the
> dmesg for the USB hard disk that I'm ultimately trying to wipe...

Why - if the device is there you have a node in /dev.
If you don't have the device then there is no node.
See devfs(8)

-- 
B.Walter                   BWCT                http://www.bwct.de
ticso at bwct.de                                  info at bwct.de