Debian bug report logs - #1146
`mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos

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From cus.cam.ac.uk!iwj10 Tue Jul 25 07:12:04 1995
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From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1146: `mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos 
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Bruce Perens writes ("Re: Bug#1146: `mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos "):
> Is this a bug in mkfs.msdos, or in mkfs? I would not expect mkfs, a power-tool
> program if I've ever seen one, to go out promiscuiously in $PATH running 
> anything named mkfs.<filesystem-name> . I'd rather see mkfs.msdos installed
> under /sbin by one of the base packages.

mkfs.msdos is not part of a Debian package.  It's something I copied
into /usr/local/bin from my old installation.

It would probably be useful as (part of) a Debian package - but
definitely not a base package.

However, it's not reasonable for the mkfs front-end to refuse to
invoke any backends I may have installed locally.  Remember that I
shouldn't put things in [/usr]/sbin because that's the Debian
distribution's space.

Bill Mitchell writes ("Re: Bug#1146: mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos"):
> Good question.  The answer seems muddy.
> 
> The FSSTND [...]

The answer isn't in the FSSTND.

> The mkfs man page says that the file system-sepcific builder
> mkfs.type is searched for in /etc/fs first, then in /etc,
> and finally in the directories listed in the PATH environment
> variable.  Based on a quick look, the code seems to do that.

Well, it doesn't work for me, as you can see from my transcript.

(a) The documentation (and code, if need be) should be changed to use
/sbin/fs and /sbin rather than /etc/fs and /etc.

(b) The code should be changed so that the PATH is searched, as the
documentation claims it is.

> [...]
> Should mkfs support programs mkfs.type programs which local
> sysadmins place in /usr/local/sbin?  Should mkfs support
> mkfs.type programs placed at an arbitrary location on the
> current PATH?  It seems to me that the mkfs designer is on
> his own here -- I don't see a standard or a requirements
> spec which addresses this.
> [...]

It seems to me that these are a perfectly reasonable requirements, and
the lack of the feature can be awkward to work around.  The code isn't
hard to do - especially if it is already there, just non-functional.

The authors of the program seem to agree with me, since they
documented this feature in the manpage, even if it doesn't work.

Ian.

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From mdd.comm.mot.com!mitchell Sun Jul 23 20:40:00 1995
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Date: Sun, 23 Jul 1995 20:38:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Mitchell <mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com>
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To: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>
Cc: Ian Jackson <iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk>, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1146: mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos
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On Sun, 23 Jul 1995, Bruce Perens wrote:

> Is this a bug in mkfs.msdos, or in mkfs? I would not expect mkfs, a power-tool
> program if I've ever seen one, to go out promiscuiously in $PATH running
> anything named mkfs.<filesystem-name> . I'd rather see mkfs.msdos installed
> under /sbin by one of the base packages.

Good question.  The answer seems muddy.

The FSSTND lists file system management commands named mkfs and
mkfs.* (* = one of ext, ext2, minix, msdos, xia, and perhaps
others) [... those words are direct fromt the FSSTND ...] as
"Required files for /sbin".

The mkfs man page says that the file system-sepcific builder
mkfs.type is searched for in /etc/fs first, then in /etc,
and finally in the directories listed in the PATH environment
variable.  Based on a quick look, the code seems to do that.

It seems to me that, wherever else it might check, mkfs should
check in /sbin for an FSSTND-compatably-situated mkfs.type
program.  It doesn't currently seem to do this unless /sbin
is on the current PATH.

Should mkfs support programs mkfs.type programs which local
sysadmins place in /usr/local/sbin?  Should mkfs support
mkfs.type programs placed at an arbitrary location on the
current PATH?  It seems to me that the mkfs designer is on
his own here -- I don't see a standard or a requirements
spec which addresses this.  Lacking a standard or a spec,
I'd not expect the different programmers of different
utilities to have made designers-choice decisions such as
this in the same way.

Message received at debian-bugs:

From pixar.com!bruce Sun Jul 23 17:42:56 1995
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To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson), debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1146: `mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 23 Jul 1995 17:28:00 PDT."
             <m0sa3tg-0002ZaZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk> 
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Date: Sun, 23 Jul 1995 17:41:52 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>

Is this a bug in mkfs.msdos, or in mkfs? I would not expect mkfs, a power-tool
program if I've ever seen one, to go out promiscuiously in $PATH running 
anything named mkfs.<filesystem-name> . I'd rather see mkfs.msdos installed
under /sbin by one of the base packages.

	Thanks

	Bruce

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From cus.cam.ac.uk!iwj10 Sun Jul 23 13:03:13 1995
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Date: Sun, 23 Jul 95 17:28 BST
From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Debian bugs submission address <debian-bugs@pixar.com>
Subject: `mkfs' doesn't find /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos

Package: miscutils
Version: 1.3-1

chiark:~> type mkfs.msdos
mkfs.msdos is /usr/local/bin/mkfs.msdos
chiark:~> echo $PATH
/u/ian/bin/linux:/u/ian/bin/scripts:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/etc:/usr/etc
chiark:~> mkfs -t msdos /dev/fd0H1440
mkfs.msdos: No such file or directory
chiark:~> mkfs.msdos /dev/fd0H1440
mkfs.msdos 0.1, 1st September 1993 for MS-DOS FS
chiark:~> 

Ian.