From: cgf AT cygnus DOT com (Christopher Faylor)
Subject: RE: New winsup snapshot 4/22/98
23 Apr 1998 06:21:19 -0700
Message-ID: <199804231254.IAA00563.cygnus.cygwin32.developers@kramden.cygnus.com>
To: sos AT prospect DOT com DOT ru
Cc: cygwin32-developers AT cygnus DOT com

>Christopher Faylor wrote:
>> The reason for the change was that I was trying to get df working.  With
>> a few minor patches it does work, but prior to this change you would get
>> two or three dialog boxes popped up on the screen when it tried to access
>> a floppy with nothing in it.
>> 
>
>Hmmm...  Hever saw dialog boxes this case...  Nt4.0 SP3.  Df just
>complained something like "/dev/fd0: can't open".

That's strange.  I can't believe that it is a difference between NT 3.51
and 4.0.  I'll try df without the change and see if I was just imagining
things again.

The problem here is, of course, that the Cygwin32 mount table is not like
a "real" UNIX mount table.  A real UNIX mount table only uses devices
that are actually connected to the system and operational.  The Cygwin32
mount table is more like a combination of /etc/fstab and a UNIX mount table.
When df.exe is scanning the "mount table" it encounters "devices" which
it shouldn't be trying to stat since they aren't really "mounted" in the
UNIX sense.

cgf