documentation / improvement of FAI_RAMDISKS?

[Michael Tautschnig]

Hi Toomas,

> Recent versions of FAI 4.0 in experimental have a new variable,
> FAI_RAMDISKS, which replaces the FAI_NORAMDISK in older versions.
> 
> The only documentation (besides the warning issued if the old variable
> is used) seems to be in http://wiki.fai-project.org/index.php/Variables
> and that does not document an important use case: what to put into the
> variable if I do not want any ramdisks to be used (eg if RAM is scarce).
> 
> I tried 'unset FAI_RAMDISKS and 'FAI_RAMDISKS=""', neither of which led
> to the desired effect: the default value $target/var/lib/dpkg gets
> assigned just prior to its use in /usr/lib/fai/mkramdisk any time the
> variable is unset or empty.
> 
> The code in /usr/lib/fai/mkramdisk contains a check whether the would-be
> ramdisk will be mounted on an existing direcory. Thus, if I assign a
> non-directory value (eg "NONE") to FAI_RAMDISKS, I should achieve the
> desired effect or not having any ramdisks mounted.
> 
> I think that this case should be better documented, and perhaps a
> special value (such as NONE) should be tested for in mkramdisk ?
> 

I briefly looked at the code myself and I completely agree that for
FAI_RAMDISKS to be called a drop-in replacement of FAI_NORAMDISK there really
should be both a proper documentation and a handling of a special value (maybe
"-", assuming that nobody would name a directory like this). I would, however,
like to see Thomas' input on this issue, but he's on vacation until the end of
this week.

Best,
Michael

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.uni-koeln.de/pipermail/linux-fai/attachments/20101013/3f8f7a6a/attachment.bin