GNU bug report logs - #15986
df in current coreutils shows the device for loop mounts, not the file

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From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
Cc: pth <at> suse.de, 15986 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#15986: df in current coreutils shows the device for loop mounts, not the file
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 00:16:05 +0100

On 11/28/2013 09:48 PM, Linda Walsh wrote:
> The fact that /etc/mtab is pointing to a wrongly formatted file by
> default, these days, rather than being used to store user-specific mount
> information, seems to be getting well-used as a reason for dropping
> useful information:

Well, there are many reasons to go away from mount-maintained mtab.
E.g. Kzak in some short words: "Yeah, mtab is evil." [1]

In the end, mtab as symlink to /proc/self/mounts is the right thing,
as it presents the view of the kernel ... which is always the correct
one.

'df' cares about the file system [2], and not too much about the
device behind it.  That's the domain of mounting tools which is indeed
OS specific.

[1] http://karelzak.blogspot.de/2011_04_01_archive.html
[2] man 1 df: "df - report file system disk space usage"

Have a nice day,
Berny

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