David Blevins <blevi...@ieee.org> wrote: > OpenBSD Community, > > I've been experimenting with the OpenBSD 6.7 install process (though > this "issue" is likely present in earlier version) and have noticed > that the fdisk program in the installation program will destructively > edit the hard drive upon selecting either MBR or GPT partitioning.
Yes, because it is an installer of OpenBSD. The default usage pattern is "OpenBSD takes over the machine". OpenBSD runs on may kinds of platforms, and the dominant pattern is "take over the machine". Perhaps you are thinking of putting multiple operating systems on the same disk? We put minimal effort into sharing a machine between multiple operating systems, because it would SUBSTANTIALLY complicate the install procedure. And want to know the other reason we don't have built-in support for multiple OS on the disk? None of us (developers) put multiple operating systems onto a single machine. We tend to develop code we use. Meaning, we tend to not develop code we won't use ourselves, because if we don't use it ourselves all the time then we won't continually test it and take care of it in the future and you can bet it is the first thing that breaks, badly. > I have repeatedly wiped a test hard drive's partitioning scheme as a > consequence of this, in spite of only desiring to examine the > partitioning scheme. Oh come on. You ran the installer. You are about 10 questions in at this point, and you know you are in the installer, and you are the first person I've heard in a decade to complain that it should not be destructive. > Is anyone receptive to a less-commital partitioning process for > installation? It seems to me that the drive's partitioning scheme > should not be re-written until the user has affirmed that the > particular scheme and layout is what they want. BTW, wait until you try to adapt that to other architectures... our code, as written now, makes those easy, but what you propose makes the code very difficult.
