Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!daemon Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix From: cks@white.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann) Subject: "mount -a -t nfs" problems found and solved Message-ID: <89Sep26.001054edt.30815@snow.white.toronto.edu> Sender:Organization: Ziebmef home away from home Date: 26 Sep 89 04:12:10 GMT Well, I found the cause of the problem we were having with "mount -a -t nfs" getting a SIGSEGV. It turns out that the DS3100 mount is somewhat stricter (in a sense) about malformed /etc/fstab lines (although I wish it gave an error message!). We like to automatically generate various files here (with 9 clients and 2 servers plus the outside world it becomes a lifesaver when you shuffle NFS mounts around), so I had an /etc/fstab with the lines # This is a machine-generated file. Please, fix the master # template (~cks/adm/templates/fstab.template) and regenerate # it instead of hand-editing. at the start (minus the tabs), on the idea/principle that a) many things take "#" as a commend and b) the local Suns do the same thing and it works for them. This works on Vaxen, but not on DS3100's; they seem to dereference a null pointer during a strcmp(). Since it happens only with a -t specified, I assume it's checking the file system type. My solution was to tack six ":"'s on, to make the comment lines valid (albeit unusual) /etc/fstab entries. Then everything works fine. Maybe we can persuade DEC to recognize comments in /etc/fstab in the next release... -- "I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world." Number Ten Ox, "Bridge of Birds" Chris Siebenmann ...!utgpu!{ncrcan,ontmoh!moore}!ziebmef!cks cks@white.toronto.edu or ...!utgpu!{,csri!}cks