Re: Patch to make mount follow a symlink at /etc/mtab

[Thomas Hood <jdthood@aglu.demon.nl>]

I wrote:
> I attach a patch that modifies the mount program in the util-linux
> package so that if /etc/mtab is a symbolic link (to a location outside
> of /proc) then mount accesses mtab at the target of the symbolic link.

I have discovered a problem with the patch I posted here.  With the
patch applied, umount aborts if it is called without "-n" and the mtab
file is not writable.  This is different from the current behavior of
the umount program and, I have discovered, there are scripts out there
that run umount without "-n" when the root filesystem is mounted
read-only.  So I have changed the patch to make umount not abort if
mtab is not writable and "-n" is not specified.

Get the updated patch at:

   http://panopticon.csustan.edu/thood/readonly-root.html

-- 
Thomas Hood