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From: Anton A. <ai...@ca...> - 2004-03-05 16:36:42
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On Fri, 2004-03-05 at 16:10, Szakacsits Szabolcs wrote: > On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, Anton Altaparmakov wrote: > > > What's missing to be released as stable? Well, mostly > > > > > > 1) discriminated exit codes thus tools using it would know > > > what to do or report to users without parsing the ntfsresize > > > output. > > > > That is not a showstopper for a stable release IMO. > > True but let me explain why I think it's important. > > Currently presenting an "error" is very cumbersome for external tools. > Thus they often skip it completely and just say e.g. something like > "Error: resize failed". What are the most popular reasons for the error? > > - inconsistent NTFS -> user must run 'chkdsk /f' > > - bad sectors -> still unsupported but user might get a > clue and disk replacement > > People are confused by the "Error: resize failed" messages (what actually > happend?) and when they communicate the unclear message, others may make > the incorrect conclusion that the fs was trashed. > > Exit codes carry a strict meaning and they can be presented in whatever > wording in whatever language by any external tool. I can see that but I still do not see it as a showstopper. I think people would rather have a tool that had bad error code reporting than not have the tool at all... > > I would suggest to either implement the $BITMAP saving > > I'm afraid I don't have the needed time for that right now. > > > OR to bolt a big fat warning when ntfsresize aborts saying something > > like: WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! You MUST let Windows chkdsk test and > > repair this partition as it has been left in an inconsistent state! > > Do not attempt to write anything to this partition until it has been > > repaired by chkdsk! Failure to do so will result in total loss of all > > data on the partition in the worst case! You have been warned. > > Seems to be unneeded. If user boots Windows then it's unavoidable. If they > want to run ntfsresize or ntfsclone then any action will be refused if the > fs is inconsistent even by using the --force option. And at present I > can't see any other way to damage or lose data using Windows or released > Linux-NTFS tools. I guess that is true but for example you could mount the resized ntfspartition in Linux and then you could get data corruption (maybe, I don't know if you actually could) if $Bitmap is inconsistent. > > Whatever you decide just let me know when you are ready and I will make > > the release. > > I'd also like a stable release ASAP but I'm not sure I have the needed > free time at present to finish everything what I originally planned. > That's why I'm looking for safe shortcuts. Well how about releasing it as it is now as 1.9.0? Additional features like better error reporting could wait for 1.9.1, 1.9.2, etc, releases... What do you think? Best regards, Anton -- Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @) Unix Support, Computing Service, University of Cambridge, CB2 3QH, UK Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/ |
