Last week we worked out offline an update to the spec to clarify
the /etc/path_to_inst issue. Diffs to the spec included below.
The complete updated spec has been placed in the final.materials
directory. Resolving this has addressed all outstanding requests,
bringing this case to a successful conclusion. Thanks everyone.
-jg
-------
etc/devices/devid_cache
etc/devices/mdi_scsi_vhci_cache
etc/devices/mdi_ib_cache
- etc/path_to_inst
etc/rtc_config
etc/zfs/zpool.cache
Each represents a pure cache, and while being up-to-date can improve
boot-time, can simply be re-built with no ill-effects on the system.
These files being out of sync does not cause an archive check failure.
+ etc/path_to_inst is also included in the list of safe files. The
+ system does rely on the persistence of entries added to this
+ file to preserve device ordering. A system can always boot with
+ an out-of-date path_to_inst, as long as newer entries from the
+ root filesystem are merged with that of the boot archive and that
+ no new device instances are assigned before the corrected
+ path_to_inst is constructed.
+
+ The circumstances that require special handling for the instance
+ file are rather unique and the team hopes that future projects
+ will not contribute additional requirements in this direction.
+
