losetuping files in tmpfs fails?

Andy Gaynor
2002-01-03T18:37:21Z

Whilst trying to figure out why my dang stripes won't persist (a separate
but worrisome issue), I wrote a dittie which creates a couple junk files in
/tmp (tmpfs), associates loop devices with them, whoops, losetup craps out.

/home/root# losetup -d /dev/loop/5 2>/dev/null # Free /dev/loop/5

/home/root# cd /home/root # Go home
/home/root# mount | grep /home # Filesystem is ...
/dev/md/8 on /home type reiserfs (rw) # reiserfs
/home/root# echo foo > foo # Create file foo
/home/root# losetup /dev/loop/5 foo # Give foo to /dev/loop/5
/home/root# losetup -d /dev/loop/5 # Free /dev/loop/5
/home/root# rm foo # Remove foo

/home/root# cd /tmp # Go to /tmp
/tmp# mount | grep tmp # Filesystem is ...
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw) # tmpfs
/tmp# echo foo > foo # Create file foo
/tmp# losetup /dev/loop/5 foo # Give foo to /dev/loop/5
ioctl: LOOP_SET_FD: Invalid argument # DISCO!!! <o > <o >
/tmp# rm foo # Remove foo

Version information:

Distribution: Debian Woody, up-to-date as of a week ago
Kernel: Linux 2.4.17

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Regards, [Ag] Andy Gaynor silver@silver.unix-fu.org