a humble request

[Mike McCarty]

Tim wrote:
> Mike McCarty:
> 
>>>>IMO, mounting by "volume name" is a very poor way to do things.
> 
>  
> Tim:
> 
>>>Okay, you have some program, let's call it SuperThing.  It has a
>>>collection of discs because that's how it comes.  At some stage it wants
>>>its disc one, later on it wants its disc two, and so on.
> 
> 
> Mike McCarty:
> 
>>Should I ever encounter that circumstance,
>>I would prefer to do the mounts myself by hand, and respond to
>>a prompt.
> 
> 
> Why have a computer which automates repetitive tasks, if you're going to
> much of the work yourself?  Have you wiped out your fstab file, and
> mount every partition by hand each time you boot up?

The only partition which is automatically mounted is /, yes.
But that does not mean that fstab is "wiped". It has entries
for 26 mounts.

I suppose that, should you insert a Windows disc with a "setup.exe"
on it, you want automatically to start Wine and run the installer?

[snip]

> experience at how good they are).  Linux's bloody awful management of
> removable media also annoys me, it's only recently got more sane.

Well, all *NIX style OS are "bloody awful", I agree. I don't agree
that it is getting better. But having things "automatically mount
and do something for you" strikes me as more the Windows way of
doing things than anything else, and one of the things about Windows
which annoys me quite a bit. I don't like anything to remove control
of my machine from my hands, especially software which may inadvertently
or intentionally do damage to my setup.

Using volume names means ensuring that they never collide, and
creates an entire name management problem. Also, anything which
"auto mounts" at any time is not going to survive on my machine
for more than the time it takes to remove it permanently from
my discs. Such behavior is a enormous security hole begging for
a breach.

Mike
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