> What is the use of doing a dasd format forcibly using the '-F' option > of dasdfmt command and > doing mke2fs forcibly using '-F' option with mke2fs command..? > When we come across these forcible scenarios ..?
For mke2fs, the man pages describe the reason for the -F command option as forcing the command to operate even if the target device is not a block special device or appears to be mounted. Dasdfmt has a similar note. It's a "your gun, your foot" situation -- according to the system, you're trying to do something that would normally be considered stupid, or at least something that you might regret and thus is worthy of a "are you sure?" question. This is your way to say "do it anyway". Both commands are capable of destroying data, but the Unix philosophy is that for better or worse, the monkey at the keyboard is in charge. Commands should not prohibit the monkey from doing what he deems necessary, but it's fair game to force the monkey to explicitly ask for the hole in the foot if he's about to do something stupid. Why? That's a harder question. The legitimate case I've encountered is with a partially written device driver that doesn't yet fill in all the device characteristics table info, but you still want to try it out. See the -dontblamesendmail option in the sendmail docs for a really amusing rant on this technique. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
