AutoFS handles automounting (/var/autofs/misc/floppy under debian) but
not fully, because the floppy is always mounted as root, preventing the
user from using the floppy. This could be worked around by making the
floppy world writable, or creating a special 'diskette' group, but these
are cumbersome compared to what *should* be possible: UID
substitution.
Actually I think it would be fine to make the floppy world-writable.
Except on the few machines where there are lots of users actually
using floppies, that is what I would always do anyway. And on those
few machines, maybe it is better to require explicit mount commands.
Condition 3 needs a VFS hook, I believe. Yes, autofs will auto unmount
after a specific amount of time, but after ejecting the floppy, I can
still do a 'ls'. The buffer cache should be cleared when it is ejected,
and I believe the VFS gets this signal.
This seems like a real issue. Programs that were actually trying to
do I/O on the floppy will have to lose, of course--unless people write
some very hairy feature to remember various floppies when they are not
on line. But the system should continue gracefully even though a disk
is removed.
