Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!haven!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: umount, and SunOS 3.X
Message-ID: <13448@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 88 19:17:02 GMT
References: <27262@neabbs.UUCP> <520@cra2.apctrc.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 15

In article <520@cra2.apctrc.UUCP> zjat02@apctrc.UUCP (Jon A. Tankersley)
writes:
>rc.boot trashes /etc/mtab before running /etc/umount -at nfs.  This leaves
>potential garbage on remote systems /etc/rmtab (remote mtab).

It does more than just that.  rc.boot is always run, even on a single-
user boot.  If your root file system gets corrupted---and as most of us
know, anything that *can* go wrong *will* go wrong (someone at Sun
seems to have forgotten)---the code that clobbers /etc/mtab will cause
a continuous series of crashes and auto-reboots.  The only way to
recover is to boot from another machine, or from the distribution
tapes.  But if this is the first machine on your network, or the only
one with source . . . ?  (Praise to Aule for mini-roots.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris