Question about raidframe use

[buhrow%lothlorien.nfbcal.org@localhost (Brian Buhrow)]

        Hello.  I've been a raidframe user for a long time, but I've recently
come across a situation that I'm not sure I know how to get out of
gracefully without rebooting.  I'm wondering if  anyone can tell me of
another way to do what I want.

        The scenario looks like this:

1.  I have a raidframe set up, the type of raidframe is not important for
purposes of this problem.

2.  One component goes bad, so I use
raidframe -a /dev/newdisk
raidframe -F badcomponent
to get the spare component online.

3.  Once the spare component is reconstructed,  it stays listed in the
raidframe -s output as a used_spare.  This until the server is rebooted and
the autoconfig pulls it in as a  full fledged component.

4.  Before I reboot, but after I've reconstructed to the spare, I find I
need to delete the spare and reconfigure  the underlying drive before
 to it as a spare again.
Doing:
raidframe -f /dev/newdisk
doesn't work because it says that  /dev/newdisk is not a component of the
raid set.

raidframe -f /dev/badcomponent doesn't work either, for the same reason.

        So, the questions are:

1.  Can the raidframe code be changed topromote  used_spares to full
components once the reconstruction is complete?  (I realize this blurs the
line between spares and full components, but right now, there is no
auto-reconstruction mechanism, and there doesn't seem to be a way of
failing a used_spare.)

2.  Failing that, can the raiddlookup code be changed to permit the manual
failing of used_spares?

        I like option 1 better, since it implies that you could go through an
endless cycle of sparing and failing disks without rebooting and always end
up with the ability to  manipulate components that are full components,
rather than  used_spares.

        Am I completely missing something here?

-thanks
-Brian