smbmount is unfriendly to RO root fs

VDA (VDA@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua)
Fri, 21 Sep 2001 16:06:49 +0300


Hello Samba folks,

I keep my root fs RO.
My /etc/mtab is symlinked to /proc/mounts.

When i try
# mount -t smbfs //host/share /mnt
mount fails trying to modify /etc/mtab.

# mount -n -t smbfs //host/share /mnt
fails too ( -n is unsupported for smbmount)

Moreover, since I use automount, even fixing smbmount
to support -n would not work: automount will not
pass -n to smbmount.

The most sensible way to make smbmount work is to
print some diagnostic ("can't update /etc/mtab")
and continue.

And yes, I verified that with RW root fs it works.
Given amount of troubles I have with RO root,
I think not many people actually trying this
(which is excellent security measure),
and lots of tools break (ldconfig, /dev/log etc etc etc).

-- 
Best regards, VDA
mailto:VDA@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua

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