<fstab.h> / getfsent(3) and friends

<fstab.h> / getfsent(3) and friends

[A. Wilcox]

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Would a small module implementing <fstab.h> be accepted upstream into
musl?  I looked on the mailing list and wiki and didn't see anyone
asking this question before.


This header and API are used by at least:

- filelight (disk space usage tracker)

- K3b (KDE disc ripper)

- KDELibs 3.x, used by TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment, light Qt DE)

- MythTV and XBMC (media center/players)

- Pegasus (scientific computation management system by USC)


Since this is already implemented by glibc[1], FreeBSD[2], NetBSD[3],
OpenBSD[4], Mac OS X[5], AIX[6], HP-UX[7], QNX[8], and
others[9][10][11][12], all but TDE's fork of KDELibs 3 don't check for
it in configure.  I would be more than happy to implement and maintain this.


Best,
--arw



[1]: https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/fstab.html

[2]: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=getfsent&sektion=3

[3]: http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?getfsent++NetBSD-current

[4]: https://man.openbsd.org/getfsent

[5]:
https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man3/getfsent.3.html

[6]:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_aix_71/com.ibm.aix.basetrf1/getfsent.htm

[7]: http://nixdoc.net/man-pages/HP-UX/man4/fstab.4.html

[8]:
http://www.qnx.com/developers/docs/6.5.0/topic/com.qnx.doc.neutrino_lib_ref/g/getfsent.html

[9]: Tru64:
http://www.polarhome.com/service/man/?qf=getfsent&tf=2&of=Tru64&sf=3

[10]: Ultrix:
http://www.polarhome.com/service/man/?qf=getfsent&af=0&sf=3&of=Ultrix&tf=2

[11]: Hurd:
http://www.polarhome.com/service/man/?qf=getfsent&af=0&sf=3&of=Hurd&tf=2

[12]: Minix:
http://www.polarhome.com/service/man/?qf=getfsent&af=0&sf=3&of=Minix&tf=2
-- 
A. Wilcox (awilfox)
Project Lead, Adélie Linux
http://adelielinux.org


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Re: <fstab.h> / getfsent(3) and friends

[Rich Felker]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 07:45:52PM -0500, A. Wilcox wrote:
> Would a small module implementing <fstab.h> be accepted upstream into
> musl?  I looked on the mailing list and wiki and didn't see anyone
> asking this question before.
> 
> 
> This header and API are used by at least:
> 
> - filelight (disk space usage tracker)
> 
> - K3b (KDE disc ripper)
> 
> - KDELibs 3.x, used by TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment, light Qt DE)
> 
> - MythTV and XBMC (media center/players)
> 
> - Pegasus (scientific computation management system by USC)
> 
> 
> Since this is already implemented by glibc[1], FreeBSD[2], NetBSD[3],
> OpenBSD[4], Mac OS X[5], AIX[6], HP-UX[7], QNX[8], and
> others[9][10][11][12], all but TDE's fork of KDELibs 3 don't check for
> it in configure.  I would be more than happy to implement and maintain this.

Seems plausible that it would be reasonable but I haven't looked at
the specifics. How large would the implementation be? Are there ugly
issues with thread-safety/global state that make the apis hard to use
reasonably? Anything weird it has to hook into?

Rich

Re: <fstab.h> / getfsent(3) and friends

[Khem Raj]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 5:57 PM, Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 07:45:52PM -0500, A. Wilcox wrote:
>> Would a small module implementing <fstab.h> be accepted upstream into
>> musl?  I looked on the mailing list and wiki and didn't see anyone
>> asking this question before.
>>
>>
>> This header and API are used by at least:
>>
>> - filelight (disk space usage tracker)
>>
>> - K3b (KDE disc ripper)
>>
>> - KDELibs 3.x, used by TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment, light Qt DE)
>>
>> - MythTV and XBMC (media center/players)
>>
>> - Pegasus (scientific computation management system by USC)
>>
>>
>> Since this is already implemented by glibc[1], FreeBSD[2], NetBSD[3],
>> OpenBSD[4], Mac OS X[5], AIX[6], HP-UX[7], QNX[8], and
>> others[9][10][11][12], all but TDE's fork of KDELibs 3 don't check for
>> it in configure.  I would be more than happy to implement and maintain this.
>
> Seems plausible that it would be reasonable but I haven't looked at
> the specifics. How large would the implementation be? Are there ugly
> issues with thread-safety/global state that make the apis hard to use
> reasonably? Anything weird it has to hook into?
>

they dont look like being thread safe or async safe atleast in glibc
docs. perhaps you can use gnulib
implementation in apps where its needed.

> Rich

Re: <fstab.h> / getfsent(3) and friends

[A. Wilcox]

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On 03/24/18 19:57, Rich Felker wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 07:45:52PM -0500, A. Wilcox wrote:
>> This header and API are used by at least:
>>
>> - filelight (disk space usage tracker)
>>
>> - K3b (KDE disc ripper)
>>
>> - KDELibs 3.x, used by TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment, light Qt DE)
>>
>> - MythTV and XBMC (media center/players)
>>
>> - Pegasus (scientific computation management system by USC)


Add XFCE 4 to this list: their disk monitor panel plugin requires
<fstab.h> and does not test for it in configure since it is so widely
implemented (as below).


>> Since this is already implemented by glibc[1], FreeBSD[2], NetBSD[3],
>> OpenBSD[4], Mac OS X[5], AIX[6], HP-UX[7], QNX[8], and
>> others[9][10][11][12], all but TDE's fork of KDELibs 3 don't check for
>> it in configure.  I would be more than happy to implement and maintain this.
> 
> Seems plausible that it would be reasonable but I haven't looked at
> the specifics. How large would the implementation be? Are there ugly
> issues with thread-safety/global state that make the apis hard to use
> reasonably? Anything weird it has to hook into?


It's basically the /etc/fstab equivalent of <mntent.h>.  It has the same
considerations as <mntent.h>.  It's MT-unsafe and AS-unsafe because it
does the set/get/end ent stuff, just with /etc/fstab instead of
/etc/mtab (or /etc/passwd in the case of pwent, etc).

https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/fstab.html is the
glibc manual for it.

I will likely write a basic implementation up next week, and send it to
the list.

Best,
--arw


-- 
A. Wilcox (awilfox)
Project Lead, Adélie Linux
https://www.adelielinux.org


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