Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Why is there a mount but no unmount?
Message-ID: <6090@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 11 Apr 88 14:40:12 GMT
References: <4643@garfield.UUCP> <242@ssbell.UUCP>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 35
Keywords: mount unmount path

It's not trivial.  In fact, it's like killing an Amiga process - since
the system doesn't know all the resources the particular driver is
using, it can't clean them up.  In adition to getting the code out of
memory, you have to deal with restoring buffers, removing file locks,
mucking with the DOS device and name lists, and similar stuff.  What
if you already have open files on the device?  You get the picture.
The driver should do most of it, but there's currently no defined
protocol (or DOS packet) that says 'unmount yourself.'

>I needed to unmount my hard-drive in mid-session (say, while testing
>a PD program for trojan horses), couldn't, and had to shut down my system

The rumored WB 1.3 release is rumored to have a program that will
allow you to write-protect your hard disk partitions.  If this rumor
were true, you would also be allowed to supply a password when you
write-lock the partition, so it could not be written to unless you
gave the password (or rebooted the machine).

Rumor also has it that there will be a way to UNMOUNT some devices,
although I know less about this rumor than the first one.

>and find a boot disk which didn't mount the drive...

Several PD utilities can help, like QMOUSE (FF #49).  Print some text
like
  **** Press the left mouse button to *NOT* mount the hard disk ****
and have QMOUSE in your startup-sequence to check.  Based on the
return value, you can tell whether or not to load the disk partition.
In this scenario, by default, your HD would get mounted.

Of course, I just CTRL/C CTRL/D my startup-sequence instead...

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page