[PATCH [mtd-utils] 3/3] mkfs.ubifs: allow reformatting of devices

[Ricard Wanderlof]

On Wed, 8 May 2013, Mike Frysinger wrote:

> Sometimes I want to re-initialize an existing ubifs, but the tool
> currently bails out if the volume is already formatted.  Prompt the
> user instead so they can decide.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mike Frysinger <vapier at gentoo.org>
> ---
> ...
> 	{"root",               1, NULL, 'r'},
> @@ -142,6 +143,7 @@ static const struct option longopts[] = {
> 	{"max-leb-cnt",        1, NULL, 'c'},
> 	{"output",             1, NULL, 'o'},
> 	{"devtable",           1, NULL, 'D'},
> +	{"yes",                0, NULL, 'y'},
> 	{"help",               0, NULL, 'h'},
> 	{"verbose",            0, NULL, 'v'},
> 	{"version",            0, NULL, 'V'},
> @@ -191,6 +193,7 @@ static const char *helptext =
> "-U, --squash-uids        squash owners making all files owned by root\n"
> "-l, --log-lebs=COUNT     count of erase blocks for the log (used only for\n"
> "                         debugging)\n"
> +"-y, --yes                assume the answer is \"yes\" for all questions\n"
> ...

Wouldn't it be better to have a specific option for this specific case, 
rather than a general yes-to-everything option? The latter makes sense 
with programs such as fsck where the only prompt basically is 'I found a 
fault, shall I fix it?', but in this is case it can be difficult to 
predict the outcome should the option start to cover more potential 
questions in the future.

-f and -F are already taken, but I was thinking something along the lines of:

"-T, --reformat		format an existing ubifs even if already formatted"

/Ricard
-- 
Ricard Wolf Wanderlöf                           ricardw(at)axis.com
Axis Communications AB, Lund, Sweden            www.axis.com
Phone +46 46 272 2016                           Fax +46 46 13 61 30