Fstab questions

[kmack]

I haven't been able to figure out what the "--" in the fstab options is for. Can someone fill me in please? Where do you find that? I looked in manpages for fstab and mount and didn't see it.

 

Example from Cannonfodder's fstab (after the user entry):

# CD/DVD

none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/ hdb,fs=auto,ro,user,--,iocharset=iso8859- 1,codepage=850 0 0

none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/ scd0,fs=auto,ro,user,--,iocharset=iso8859- 1,codepage=850 0 0

none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--

 

Also, most people seem to setup CDROM's and CDRW's with the fs=iso9660 option. Is that due to stability issues or would the auto option give more flexibility?

 

If the user option is called, is it redundant to put the umask=0 entry in too?

[aru]

No idea about the first two questions, I've never seen the -- option before, and I've never had a problem mounting cds using iso9660 fs.

 

About your last question

If the user option is called, is it redundant to put the umask=0 entry in too?

what makes you think so? one option has no relation with the other. The umask option defines the bitmask of the *new* files that might be *created* in the mounted partition, while the user flag is set to *allow* a normal user to *mount* a given partition (the only special thing is that that option implies noexec, nosuid, and nodev, so these flags are the ones redundant if used with user). See man mount for more info.

[mtweidmann]

Generally all CDs (and DVD for that matter) should use the same filesystem. Its part of the standard set out to make sure that a CD should work on any CD-ROM drive. So if its always the same theres no real need for auto.

 

That said there is no reason why it has to be iso09660, in theory you could whatever you liked on it. One reason for using auto instead might be if you wanted to use CDs written by incremental packet, but I'm not entirely sure how that works in Linux.

[Glitz]

I use LM8.1 and this is what I have as my CD, CDRW, and DVD setup in fstab:

 

/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,exec,ro,noauto 0 0

 

/dev/scd1 /mnt/cdrom2 udf,iso9660 user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,exec,ro,noauto 0 0

 

/dev/hdd /mnt/dvd udf,iso9660 user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,exec,ro,noauto 0 0

 

For obvious reasons I don't use supermount under LM8.1 but I specify the filesystems to look for on these devices as UDF first and ISO9660 second. This allows CDRW's written with packet writing software (eg. DIRECTCD) to be detected properly and forces the UDF track to be mounted as opposed to the ISO9660 bridge track (the one with the UDF reader software that installs under windows). The auto option will detect this bridge track first and mount it instead of the UDF track on CDRWs (at least for LM8.1).

 

All the codepage= parameters were removed due to a bug in the mount program that would not detect and mount UDF partitions if this was present (It may be fixed now, I don't know). Besides, the codepage= parameter is not valid for ISO9660 or UDF anyway and is ignored (except for the bug mentioned above).

 

I have no idea what -- is. Maybe it's just a placeholder that is ignored?

 

Glitz.

[Cannonfodder]

Mandrake created those entries in the example. I have no idea why?

[kmack]

Thanks for all the great input and feedback!

 

I am trying to get past the "monkey see--monkey do" stage of being a Mandrake user. Up to now, I have pretty much just worked to get my system to run. Now I want to learn how to make it fly! :wink:

 

One thing I am learning is that "--" and other things added by MCC are probably ML specific and might not be documented or even necessary in some cases. :roll:

 

I admit that sometimes it is hard for me to read electronic documentation as opposed to a good old BOOK! I am old enough to not have grown up in the ebook generation. I have Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly) but it is sometimes too brief. I need to dig up a few more good references in print for backup.

 

Again, thanks for the help. You all are great! :)