Destructive behavior in --skipcopy option of livecd-iso-to-disk

[Frederick Grose]

The --skipcopy option in livecd-iso-to-disk was implemented to aid testing
and boot configuration file recovery (see
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.livecd/2682).

I've found that it will overwrite both an existing persistent overlay and
home.img, if they exist.  This is unintentional destructive behavior.

While it may seem that one wouldn't ask for a new overlay or home folder
AND skipcopy--during the testing of scripts, this is a reasonable scenario.

I've filed a bug, https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=582051,
containing the attached skipcopy.patch.

Please review and advise me on how to proceed.

This is a piece of a project to enhance the livecd-iso-to-disk script for
the Sugar on a Stick customization kit project, but it has more general
benefits.

Again, please see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=448030 and
advise.

I'm planning now to submit smaller change patches to make review easier.

          --Fred

[Frederick Grose]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Frederick Grose <fgrose(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  The --skipcopy option in livecd-iso-to-disk was implemented to aid
>  testing and boot configuration file recovery (see
>  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.livecd/2682). 

Here is the original rationale for --skipcopy:

On 10/29/08 6:18 PM, Stewart Adam wrote:

>  * Adds --skipcopy to skip copying the live OS 
Oops, forgot to mention two things. I know this feature seems a little odd,
>  so I wanted to explain a bit more... --skipcopy doesn't skip all
> copying,
>  just the live OS, which makes it useful for testing the boot configuration.
>  It's also useful for USB media, where testing over and over would normally
>  be wasting limited write cycles; it takes a lot of waiting for the 700-MB
>  file copy to finish. ALso, say the MBR gets lost or you've transferred the
>  live OS files from a friend's key, you can just refresh the MBR and
>  bootloader config instead without touching the live OS and persistent home. 

I've filed a bug, https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=582051,
containing patches for the livecd-iso-to-disk.sh and .pod files.

I've found that it will overwrite both an existing persistent overlay and

home.img, if they exist.  This is unintentional destructive behavior.


>  While it may seem that one wouldn't ask for a new overlay or home
> folder 
AND skipcopy, during the testing of scripts, this is a reasonable scenario.



This is a piece of a project to enhance the livecd-iso-to-disk script for

the Sugar on a Stick customization kit project,


and it has the general benefit of making testing of the script easier during
development.

        --Fred