I hate to bitch but bitch I must

[krad]

2009/10/17 PJ <af.gourmet at videotron.ca>

> michael wrote:
> > PJ wrote:
> >> Why is it that the manual pages, as thorough as they may be, are very,
> >> very confusing.
> >> Perhaps I am being too wary, but I find that too many
> >> instructions/examples are stumbling blocks to appreciation of the whole
> >> system:
> >> for instance, let's look at the instructions for changing disk labels
> >> with glabel or is it tunefs ?
> >> man glabel(8):
> >>
> >> for UFS the file system label is set with
> >> tunefs(8)
> >> <
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tunefs&sektion=8&apropos=0&manpath=FreeBSD+7.2-RELEASE
> >.
> >>
> >> what happened to glabel?
> >> man tunefs(8)
> >> The *tunefs* utility cannot be
> >> run on an active file system. To change an active file system, it must
> >> be downgraded to read-only or unmounted.
> >>
> >> So, you have to run tunefs from an active file system to modify another
> >> disk?
> >> but from man tunefs:
> >> BUGS
> >> This utility should work on active file systems.
> >> What in hades does this mean--just above it says cannot be run on active
> >> file systems. ???
> >>  To change the root file
> >> system, the system must be rebooted after the file system is tuned.
> >>
> >> You can tune a file system, but you cannot tune a fish.
> >> How cute... And fish eat bugs.
> >>
> >> Seriously, now to the manual:
> >> To create a permanent label for a UFS2 file system without destroying
> >> any data, issue the following command:
> >> # tunefs -L /home/ /dev/da3
> >>
> >> Oh? home is what? What does this have to do with the partitions?
> >> Here's from man glabel(8):
> >>
> >> EXAMPLES
> >> The following example shows how to set up a label for disk ``da2'', cre-
> >> ate a file system on it, and mount it:
> >> glabel label -v usr /dev/da2
> >> newfs /dev/label/usr
> >> mount /dev/label/usr /usr
> >> [...]
> >> umount /usr
> >> glabel stop usr
> >> glabel unload
> >>
> >> The next example shows how to set up a label for a UFS file system:
> >> tunefs -L data /dev/da4s1a
> >> mount /dev/ufs/data /mnt/data
> >>
> >> Am I to understand that glabel is only for a new system? What's with the
> >> newfs... I'm trying to set labels on an system that is already set up.
> >> And, the glabel examle above is not for UFS file systems? Oh, that's for
> >> tunefs?
> >> So why are we even dealing with this glabel?
> >>
> >> from manual:
> >> # tunefs -L /home/ //dev/da3/
> >> A label should now exist in /dev/ufs which may be added to /etc/fstab:
> >> /dev/ufs/home /home ufs rw 2 2
> >>
> >> Why? Is this necessary? and somewhere I saw "tunefs -L volume
> >> /dev/da0s1a" or something like that. Does that mean that each partition
> >> should be tunefsd? Maybe the guys who programmed this stuff understand;
> >> I sure don't. I just want to be able to set the labels according to what
> >> they say can be done... so shy not have a clear and concise explanation?
> >>
> >> Do people who write this stuff ever read it? Tell me that its clear and
> >> simple and to the point... so far, I have been running back and forth
> >> between half a dozen web pages trying to understand what is going
> >> on... and doing things through a dense fog does not produce creative
> >> results!
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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> >> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> >>
> > ok, in short since i didn't see anyone answer this directly, your
> > question of tunefs vs glabel:
> >
> > tunefs is for UFS: it labels a UFS filesystem, no matter the device,
> > ie: ad or da. tunefs is part of the filesystem utilities for UFS.
> > good example, can't tunefs -L SWAP /dev/ad0s1b if it is a swap. you
> > can glabel it.
> >
> > glabel is for labeling a device itself. you can glabel an ntfs
> > filesystem or ext2, whatever.
> >
> >
> Thanks for that, Michael.
> But can you explain what this means? It just is not clear for me.
> "# tu;nefs -L home /dev/da3"
> This puts a label on that disk? So now it can be referred to as home?
> da3 = home ?
>
> I'll try to delve into the man glabel further... but things still look
> murky.
>
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he has a raw file system on that device, ie dangerously dedicated, no
partitions etc