RE: partition minor numbering wrong with GPT

[Matt_Domsch]

> In future, we'll probably be getting a lot more than 15...

Sure.  And the code does the right thing to determine if it's 15 or 63 or N.

> > Things
> > like /dev/sda7 doesn't change if /dev/sda6 is deleted.  
> But, that's also why
> > file system GUIDs, labels, and partition GUIDs and labels 
> exist.  In a sane
> > world, you'd always mount by label.  But we're not there yet.
> 
> Agreed.  OTOH, there is something to be said for being able to
> address a device by it's location (as well as it's ID/name/whatever).
> But, the name probably could serve equally well.
> 
> I guess this means parted should accept partition names instead
> of numbers...?

That would be cool...
 
> I think changing the kernel gpt code to match everything else...

I'm actually leaning this way too now (my test patch for 2.5.7 is reading
only the first N entries in the table, and if they're zero, fine, just don't
tell the kernel there's a partition there).

> It's nasty that deleting a partition means you have to redo
> /etc/fstab.

Well, many sane OSs do mount-by-label instead, so that isn't a problem. :-)
RHL7.1 and 7.2 certainly.  Still a problem for FAT (like the EFI System
Partition, though it's almost always at /dev/sda1) and swap file systems
though.  Worst case here, you don't get these mounted.  System still works,
albeit with no ESP and no swap. :-(

-Matt

--
Matt Domsch
Sr. Software Engineer
Dell Linux Solutions www.dell.com/linux
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