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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!cit-vax!mangler
From: mangler@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (System Mangler)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: panic: iinit: how configuring works
Message-ID: <866@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Mon, 4-Aug-86 03:55:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.866
Posted: Mon Aug  4 03:55:16 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Aug-86 07:16:07 EDT
References: <972@dicome.UUCP> <2621@umcp-cs.UUCP> <932@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU> <2395@teklds.UUCP>
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 19
Summary: unit numbers can change because of wildcarding
Xref: mnetor net.unix:5099 net.unix-wizards:7380

In article <2395@teklds.UUCP>, setha@teklds.UUCP (Seth D. Alford) writes:
> When you change your unit plugs ...
> ... depending on how your system is configured,
> you may lose data.  If you are swapping on a non-b partition on one of
> your disks, you may find yourself swapping on a non-b partition on another
> disk.  Your data on the file system on that partition will be wiped out.

On 4.2/4.3 BSD, if you wildcard the unit numbers in the config file,
this can happen even without changing the unit plugs - if a paging
disk is missing or not powered up, the wildcarding substitutes some
other disk, and you wipe out any filesystem that crosses that area.

(I still remember spending my 21st birthday reconstructing an RT11
directory that got swapped on.	It taught me the value of backups).

Unit number wildcards seem to be quite dangerous without really giving
you anything.  I don't use them any more.

Don Speck	speck@vlsi.caltech.edu	seismo!cit-vax!speck