>
> No, these are never "removed" as part of normal system operation.
> They can be disconnected by malfunction, but that is a different matter.
> If you want super-high reliability, of course you should use RAID or
> some other solution. But for ordinary activities, we do not say
> the software has a flaw if hardware malfunctions can lose data.
> (Obviously we hope hardware malfunctions will not occur.)
>
> However, removing removable media is part of normal operation,
> and the software should support it conveniently and reliably.
>
The only real , safe and sure answer to that problem is for the program
using the data on the floppy to not keep files open and be prepared for
anything. After all there is the added problem of how error prone a floppy
drive is (that is the drive/media interaction).
The kernel just does not seem like the right place to fix these problems.
If a user cannot be trusted with the operation then the UI should provide
the training wheels. The desktop GUIs seem to be working in that
direction. B
> After all, some of the same issues on hitting the floppy eject button
> could be made for hitting the power button instead of doing a shutdown.
>
> This shows a fundamentally mistaken way of looking at the question.
>
> Shutdowns are rare, and C-M-DEL or even `shutdown -h now' are
> convenient enough ways to request one. Removing a floppy is much more
> frequent and should be made convenient as well as reliable.
>
>
I'm not so sure about that. In supporting a 600 seat call center I have
often asked a user to log out / log in so I could watch the login script
run. My mouth no longer drops when they reach over and hit the power
button, with all applications up and running. If they should be expected
to type 'shutdown -h now' then they could type 'unmount /dev/floppy'
It could just be that we are dealing with cheap, poorly designed hardware
and we are trying to fix that problem in software.
Have a good one.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 23 2000 - 21:00:20 EST