Re^2: Preventing multiple instances

[Bod]

Add the following line to the bottom of your /etc/fstab file (you'll need sudo to do this):

tmpfs /var/memdir tmpfs nodev,nosuid,size=1M 0 0

This is a very interesting approach!
Can you explain why you chose /var/memdir and not /tmp/memdir as it by its very nature temporary.

Also, any reason to set the number of blocks to zero?

Does the /etc/fstab contain all the information about the entire file systems?

[afoken]

Also, any reason to set the number of blocks to zero?

Does the /etc/fstab contain all the information about the entire file systems?

fstab(5)

Alexander

[Bod]

Thanks for the link afoken but it only answers one of my three questions...no, not the entire system is defined there but most of it is.

Can you explain why you chose /var/memdir and not /tmp/memdir as it is by its very nature temporary.

I'm guessing this is a design decision, not something that is going to be explained in the documentation.

Also, any reason to set the number of blocks to zero?

This documentation doesn't cover the size=1M 0 0 parameter and I cannot find reference to it in the links. I asked because when I looked up what these parameters do I found advice that "It is generally unwise to mount with such options" in this article.

[afoken]

Can you explain why you chose /var/memdir and not /tmp/memdir as it is by its very nature temporary.

I'm guessing this is a design decision, not something that is going to be explained in the documentation.

/tmp is often already on a ramdisk-like virtual filesystem, e.g. tmpfs. If not, some boot script cleans up tmp. So /tmp/memdir is gone after a reboot. /var is on persistent storage, so /var/memdir will survive a reboot.

Also, any reason to set the number of blocks to zero?

This documentation doesn't cover the size=1M 0 0 parameter and I cannot find reference to it in the links. I asked because when I looked up what these parameters do I found advice that "It is generally unwise to mount with such options" in this article.

/etc/fstab is structured, six fields separated by whitespace. This implies that no field can contain whitespace. The fields are (in order):

1. fs_spec (roughly the device to be mounted)
2. fs_file (the mount point)
3. fs_vfstype (filesystem type)
4. fs_mntops (mount options for the filesystem)
5. fs_freq ("This field is used by dump(8) to determine which filesystems need to be dumped. Defaults to zero (don't dump) if not present.")
6. fs_passno (used to select the order for fsck at boot. / should have 1, others 2, 0 disables fsck at boot)

"size=1M" is part of the mount options in field 4, the two zeros after that are fields 5 and 6.

stevieb proposed to add this to fstab:

tmpfs /var/memdir tmpfs nodev,nosuid,size=1M 0 0

Split at whitespace and compare with the field descriptions.

Alexander