FreeBSD, FHS, and /mnt/cdrom

[Tillman Hodgson]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2003 at 03:41:16PM +0100, Frank Murphy wrote:
> The folks at the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) are discussing
> (again) where directories for recurring temporary mount points should go.
> Recurring temporary mount points are for things like cdroms, floppies,
> and digital cameras as well as HD partitions from other OSes (like MS
> Windows).

Hey, thanks for making the discussion a bit more public :-)

> So, please put these in the order of most to least preferred, and say why
> you like or dislike any of them.
> 
> - All mount points in / (e.g. /cdrom, /camera, /windows/C)  <- current
> FreeBSD standard

Will become annoying as time goes on and my toothbrush has a remotely
mountable filesystem.

> - All mount points in /mnt (e.g. /mnt/cdrom, /mnt/camera, /mnt/windows/C)
> <- breaks
>       FreeBSD standard for an empty /mnt

Might be workable if there was a /mnt/mnt, but that's so ridiculous I'd
be against it as a matter of humour-prevention :-)

> - Anyplace at all

I don't like this because it makes admin'ing heterogenous networks
harder. And because "anyplace at all" often translates to "change
locations every few years to accomodate the newest trends in hardware".
Ick. Some stability, please.

> - Anyplace but /mnt (i.e. what the FHS 2.2 currently specifies)

Not touching /mnt is a good idea. The "anyplace" isn't for the same
reason as above.

> - Anyplace but / or /mnt (e.g. /vol/cdrom, /var/mnt/camera,
> /media/windows/C)
>       (some suggestions have been /media, /mounts, /vol, /var/mnt,
>       and /var/tmp/removable. Others?)

This is better.

I prefer a single directory (though not /mnt) in the root directory.
/vol and /media both make sense to me, though I prefer /vol because it's
less typing (and not all mounts are media ...).

There's a bit of a bikeshed here. To help alleviate that, I think that
the sub-directories inside of /vol or /media should be undefined. This
let's us contain these sorts of mounts to a single location but also
let's one decorate as one wishes. All tools need to do is poke around in
/vol or /media and they'll find the mounts.

-T


-- 
if ( $clue eq 'none' )
   	read (handbook|faq|man|others) && search (whatis|lists|forum|google)
if ( $answer == 0 )
	post->question