Alan Jenkins wrote: > Jim Meyering wrote: >> Alan Jenkins wrote: >> >>> Package: coreutils >>> Version: 8.1-1 >>> Severity: normal >>> >>> >>> To reproduce: >>> >>> $ mkdir -p /mnt/root >>> $ mount --bind / /mnt/root >>> >>> (I have this in /etc/fstab... >>> it lets me access parts of / which are hidden by other mounted filesystems >>> - >>> this happens to be useful for reasons too long and obscure to be worth >>> explaining) >>> >>> $ du -x >>> du: WARNING: Circular directory structure. >>> This almost certainly means that you have a corrupted file system. >>> NOTIFY YOUR SYSTEM MANAGER. >>> The following directory is part of the cycle: >>> `./mnt/root' >>> .... >>> >> >> Thanks for the report. >> I confirm that this still happens with the latest. >> >> For now, I suggest you use e.g., >> >> du --exclude=/mnt -x / >> >> Unless such bind mounts appear to be common, >> I may just leave the current semantics as they are. >> >> By the way, would you want du to traverse each >> root partition directory twice? >> > > No. I was thinking that -x would treat bind mounts like other mounts, > and not traverse them. > > I guess the problem is that -x is taken to mean "stay on this > _filesystem_ only", as opposed to "stay on this _mount_ only". > > And "stay on this filesystem" is probably easier to implement; you > just check st_dev. "Stay on this mount" requires checking /etc/mtab > or /proc/mounts. > > It doesn't seem too hard to add an extra check before printing the > warning. But I agree this is probably obscure, so I don't blame you > for not being very bothered about it :-).
Eventually we'll probably do precisely that, and merely warn (or maybe suppress or water-down the diagnostic), rather than failing.
