<SOLVED it's not a bug> Is this a mylivecd bug ?

[AS]

Hi all,

# mylivecd --gzip --resolution 800x600 --md5sum --nodir ^/tmp/ --nodir ^/vbox/ --nodir ^/u/ /tmp/as.iso 2>&1
mylivecd, version 0.9.4, http://pclinuxos.com/
Copyright (C) 2010, Texstar <texstar at gmail.com>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Disabling Services not needed on the LiveCD

running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list


Creating initrd:                                            [100.00% 00:00:05/00:00:05]
Setting filesystem parameters:                     [100.00% 00:00:02/00:00:02]
Creating compressed image:                         [ 79.43% 00:32:34/00:41:15]^C
FATAL: Interrupted.

I'm experiencing some bad behavior using mylivecd, some details:
Usually my ISO will include the '/' filesystem + '/boot' and create a correct ISO image of approx 4 Gib, the whole process take approx 12 minutes.

Instead of unmounting the /vbox and /u filesystems, this time I've used the --nodir option, as reported above, but something has gone wrong, the progress counter stop at 79.43% while the temporary files continue to grow indefinitely, after half an hour the whole /tmp filesystem is filled  and the only thing to do is to kill the mylivecd process.

I have performed a filesystem check on all filesystems, all filesystems were already OK. (used fsck -f ...)
The only thing I can note is that the /u filesystem actually contains a lot of small files, exactly 42652, implicitly mylivecd create a large list of excluded files.

Is this a known issue ? Am I doing something wrong ?

Clearly unmonting the /u filesystem allow me to create the correct image.iso, but I need to know if the --nodir option used on a mounted filesystem could be considered equivalent to unmounting the same filesystem or not.
Or eventually if there are known limits while using --nodir --nofiles options.

Thanks for reading.

AS

[Neal ManBear]

--nodir and --nofiles options are not the same as unmount. They simply mean "exclude this."     

Do you have sufficient space for creating your remaster?

[AS]

--nodir and --nofiles options are not the same as unmount. They simply mean "exclude this."     

Do you have sufficient space for creating your remaster?

Yes, as I wrote before if the 2 filesystems (/vbox and /u) are unmounted, the whole process complete successfully.

And I understand that --nodir is not the same as umount, but in this specific case should produce the same result, i.e. exclude all files under that directories, /vbox and /u.  Am I missing something ? Syntax errors ?

mylivecd --gzip --resolution 800x600 --md5sum --nodir ^/tmp/ --nodir ^/vbox/ --nodir ^/u/ /tmp/as.iso 2>&1

Thank you
AS

[Neal ManBear]

The option "--md5sum" is unneeded, as the resulting ISO will include the md5sum without it. Why the "--resolution 800x600" option?

What is /u file system? Do you mean /union? /union is the file system for live media.     

[AS]

The option "--md5sum" is unneeded, as the resulting ISO will include the md5sum without it.

OK

Why the "--resolution 800x600" option?

It's one of the available mylivecd options ...

What is /u file system? Do you mean /union? /union is the file system for live media.     

no, it's a normal ext4 filesystem, it's a short mountpoint name 

I made several tests, omitting all unnecessary options, ( --md5sum --resolution 800x600 --nodir ^/tmp ...) so far all with the same results. Looking further inside the file /tmp/mylivecd.nnnnn/exclude.list I'm able to count 4006 entries starting with /u were I should expect something like 42652 ....

I think the issue is around here .... unless I'm doing something wrong which actually I'm unable to see.

[Neal ManBear]

You used the "--resolution 800x600" option just because it is available?     

Try your command without using the "/u."     

[AS]

You used the "--resolution 800x600" option just because it is available?

Yes, but check PM!

Try your command without using the "/u."     

already done ... without improvements:

I made several tests, omitting all unnecessary options, ( --md5sum --resolution 800x600 --nodir ^/tmp ...)

[Neal ManBear]

One further question ---     
Why did you add "2>&1" to your command? (From your original post.)     

[Just17]

The only thing I can recall is that from the very beginning of this scheme, it was always advised, and indeed implemented, that all unused partitions were unmounted before remastering.

I never questioned why this should be done, as I considered it the most reasonable and likely much faster, method of excluding files.

Remasterme by Ivan Iverekes (I think) had something set up to unmount unused partitions. (My memory is open to correction   )

It may be there is some - unknown to me - limitation somewhere, that casues the excludes list to bog down when it reaches a particular size, or number of entries. Seems doubtful though.

I wonder if anyone can recall anything about why the unmounting of partitions was the norm ....  from the time of mklivecd.

Sorry ....  no help .....  

regards.

[AS]

One further question ---     
Why did you add "2>&1" to your command? (From your original post.)     

to join together stderr and stdout on a single stream so that I can redirect both to a ... file ...

[Neal ManBear]

Just18,
Unmounting other partitions is done to prevent the content of those partitions from being included in the ISO.

AS,
Will the command work without that addition?     

[AS]

AS,
Will the command work without that addition?     

You mean without --nodir ^/u/ ?
No, doesn't work.

You mean including the content of the /u filesystem ?
didn't tried that ... I'm going to test it...

[Neal ManBear]

I meant the "2>&1," AS.     

[Just17]

Just18,
Unmounting other partitions is done to prevent the content of those partitions from being included in the ISO.
    

The questions .....  why is there a difference between unmounting the partition and excluding it using the --nodir option? ....  and what is the actual difference?

Are there limitations with the --nodir option that means unused partitions should be unmounted and not excluded?

regards.

[AS]

I meant the "2>&1," AS.     

Yes, of course, tried also without this, still without success.