Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely
From: jgreely@diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: read-only file systems
Keywords: file-system, NFS, mount, symlink, reorg nonsense
Message-ID: <38013@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 3 Mar 89 17:20:16 GMT
References: <619@gt-eedsp.UUCP>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: J Greely <jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of
              Computer and Information Science
Lines: 26


In article <619@gt-eedsp.UUCP> flur@gt-eedsp.UUCP (Peter W. Flur) writes:
>This may be a real dumb question, but how do I get around the NeXT
>machines partitioning the file system so that I can't write to various
>partitions?

The answer is, of course, to edit /bootdisk/Admin/Private/conf/fstab
(alias /etc/fstab), to make /bootdisk/NeXT rw.

>I know that /etc/fstab says it is read only also, but /etc
>is also read-only, so i can't change it either.  I've tried umounting,
>but the device is obviously busy.

The file system reorganization bit *you*!  /etc/fstab is a symbolic
link to /bootdisk/Admin/Private/conf/fstab, which is located on the
root partition, which is mounted read-write.  Many of the configuration
files are shipped without the write bit turned on.

Important safety tip: if you're an emacs user, make sure you're editing
the files in their proper NeXT location.  Don't try to edit /etc/fstab;
it's just a symlink.

(wouldn't it be nice if mount supported the SunOS remount option?)

-=-
J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)