From: rich@example.invalid   
      
   Jim Diamond  wrote:   
   > What you didn't address was the question I asked.  Let me restate, with a   
   > bit more detail...   
   >   
   > Since you seem to have multiple systems, some upgraded and some fresh   
   > installs, is it the case that /etc/mtab is always a symlink on the fresh   
   > install systems and always a file on systems upgraded from 14.2 ?   
   >   
   > (Perhaps answering this is too much effort for the perceived value, but if   
   > it isn't, I'm curious, and perhaps others are as well.)   
      
   You can answer this question yourself.   
      
   Go to your friendly slackware mirror, and within the 15.0 file tree,   
   browse to the source/installe/sources/initrd directory.   
      
   Download the skeleton_initrd.tar.gz file.   
      
   Decompress the tar.gz file somewhere, and within the unpacked contents,   
   navigate to the usr/lib/setup directory.   
      
   View the 'setup' file in usr/lib/setup.   
      
   search for 'mtab' in the 'setup' file.   
      
   You will find this within the setup code:   
      
     # On a new system, make /etc/mtab a symlink to /proc/mounts:   
     if [ ! -r $T_PX/etc/mtab ]; then   
       mkdir -p $T_PX/etc   
       ( cd $T_PX/etc ; ln -sf /proc/mounts mtab )   
     fi   
      
   What that says is if there is no "/etc/mtab' file on the disk being   
   installed onto, then create mtab as a sysmlink to /proc/mounts.   
      
   So, for a fresh install, /etc/mtab will always be a symlink to   
   /proc/mounts.   
      
   For an upgrade, with an existing /etc/mtab, the existing /etc/mtab will   
   be untouched.   
      
   For an upgrade, without an existing /etc/mtab (unlikely, but someone   
   could rm it before beginning the install) a symlink from /etc/mtab to   
   /proc/mounts will also be created.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)