On 11/9/2016 3:26 PM, [email protected] wrote: > On Wed, Nov 09, 2016 at 10:57:23AM -0500, Phil Susi wrote: >> On 11/9/2016 9:43 AM, [email protected] wrote: >>> unless root has set up fstab accordingly, to name but one variant. > >> fstab has nothing to do with it. That only lets you mount and unmount >> existing filesystems. > > It sure has. The sysadmin can set up an fstab entry with the 'user' > option; she specifies a device (or an UUID, or a label) and a > mount point. The (regular) user can then mount, wihout any special > privileges.
That's what I just said. This discussion isn't about mounting and unmounting though, but rather is about partitioning. > Unless you know its offset whithin the containing block device, to which > you do have access (in the mentioned cases of an OS file viz. a device). > You don't need any loop device for that. You need he loop device for > *mounting* the file system, not for mkfs. Knowing the offset does not help since mkfs does not accept an offset parameter; it expects the partition device.
