Re: [PATCH 2/3] mke2fs: print extra information about existing ext2/3/4 file systems

Theodore Ts'o
2014-05-05T14:28:11Z

On Mon, May 05, 2014 at 10:04:01AM -0400, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> The basic idea behinid these patches is that we now get a bit more
> context with the warning message for ext2/3/4 file systems:
>
> % ./misc/mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/heap/media
> mke2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
> /dev/heap/media contains a ext4 file system labelled 'media'
> last mounted on /media on Mon May 5 08:59:53 2014
> Proceed anyway? (y,n)

And actually, the place where this context is critically important is
in this case (where let's say, the user typo's sdc3 when they meant to
type sdd3):

% ./misc/mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/sdc3
mke2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
/dev/sdc3 contains a ext4 file system
last mounted on /SOX-backups on Mon May 5 08:59:53 2014
Proceed anyway? (y,n)

... where this becomes a last-ditch saving through against the
accidental wiping of the enterprise's Sarbanes-Oxley records. :-)

- Ted