On Friday August 13, stoffel@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Hi Neil,
>
> I've been using mdadm recently to work with some arrays and I really
> have to say I dislike how the commands are laid out and used. First
> off, they're not consistent from one usage to another. Of course, I'm
> going to be jerk and not give good examples since my personal box at
> home is down and I'm at work. But the idea is that when you assemble
> a RAID device, it should look similiar to how you manage that raid
> device.
Examples would really help. In my mind it is very regular. There is
some room for flexibility, but generally, the usage is
mdadm --mode --option... /dev/md-device [ component devices ... ]
>
> I'd also love it if there was an mdadm shell, so I could just type
> 'mdadm' and get back a shell prompt like:
>
> mdadm>
>
> which I could then use to manage my arrays.
>
> For example, I think all the commands should be of the format:
>
> mdadm <comand> [options] <array> [devices...]
Except that I follow the Unix norms of --command, that is (to me)
exactly what usage is like.
>
> as much as possible. I'm basing my thoughts on both the Vertias VxVM
> command set, as well as the ClearCase 'cleartool' command shell. So
> ideally I could do either:
>
> > mdadm assemble md0 /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 ...
>
> or
>
> > mdadm
> madam> assemble md0 /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 ...
>
> depending on my mood. Currently, the mdadm commands use various
> formats for their arguement layouts and it's a pain to figure out what
> to use.
Well, if you really want a shell mode, I recommend writing one using a
popular shell, such as bash. I have included a code fragment below.
If you store it in a file named, e.g., 'mdsh', then it will do
essentially what you seem to be asking.
>
> So before I get all worked up on this issue, and spend a bunch of time
> mapping out how I think the commands should work, do people agree with
> my observation?
I don't, but I'm obviously biased. Maybe if you could (as I said
above) show me where the irregularities are, that would help.
Possibly it's just a case of needing improved documentation.
Anyway, here is a code fragment which implements a command called
"mdsh". If you type "mdsh" with no args, you get a shell prompt. All
normal shell commands work as well as a new command "assemble" which
adds "/dev/" to it's first argument and passes the whole lot to "mdadm
--assemble". Alternately, you can run
mdsh assemble md0 ....
and get a similar effect. Extensions are left as an exercise for the
reader. :-)
NeilBrown
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -eq 0 -a " $mdsh_running" != " yes" ]
then
export mdsh_running=yes
exec bash --rcfile `which $0`
exit 1
fi
assemble()
{
mdev=$1; shift
if [ ! -b "$mdev" -a -b /dev/"$mdev" ]
then mdev=/dev/"$mdev"
fi
mdadm --assemble $mdev "$@"
}
case $# in
0 )
PS1='mdsh > ' PS2='mdsh.. '
;;
* ) eval "$@"
esac
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