> der Mouse <mouse@Holo.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> writes:
> 
> > And don't make the mistake I did, of doing "cp netbsd /netbsd+ && mv
> > /netbsd /netbsd- && mv /netbsd+ /netbsd && reboot".  If the old kernel
> > is called netbsd- then you can't boot from it (!), at least on some
> > architectures.  It turns out the second-stage boot program has a really
> > dumb parser that takes a - as a flag marker even when it's not preceded
> > by whitespace.  (Nowadays I use /netbsdN and /netbsdX.)
> 
> The reason I use netbsd and onetbsd is simple.  The second-stage boot loader
> for i386 looks first at netbsd, then onetbsd, then something else which I
> have yet to need.  :)

/netbsd.old


And, since i've jumped into this discussion:

Typically, i name kernels:

	/netbsd.new	testing kernel, likely to crash,
			probably going to be used for one boot
			only.

	/netbsd		normal kernel, i.e. stable enough to
			boot and mount single-user and frob
			things and reboot.

	/netbsd.bak	last kernel that i was running that
			was "normal," but not necessarily
			stable enough to actually run for
			long on.

	/netbsd.old	last stable kernel that i trust.
			I use this as the replacement for
			/netbsd, if it seems losing.

	/onetbsd	oldest stable kernel that should
			run on my current configuration
			(i.e. which supports my user-land
			binaries and hardware, without
			any question).

I try to replace /netbsd.old at least once a month.
I typically replace /onetbsd once every 2-4 months, but
sometimes more often depending on what i'm doing, in terms
of development.


The alpha boot blocks only boot the kernel specified at the
console prompt, so the names are arbitrary.

It's always bugged me that on the i386, if /netbsd is bad but is
"good enough" to be loaded (i.e. but doesn't boot successfully),
the machine will reboot forever.  However, there's no way that I know
of to do anything about that.  8-(


chris