>>> [T]he in-core disk label is 'thrown away' when the deveice is no
>>> longer in use - in this case as soom as mbrlabel exits!
>> Unless a DIOCKLABEL has been done on that disk.
> But unless there is a netbsd partition on the drive, there is nowhere
> to write the label.  Writing it to (say) sector 1 could be bad news.

DIOCKLABEL affects keeping the in-core label in-core, as opposed to
discarding it as described in the third-level quote above.  It has
nothing to do with on-disk labels anywhere (except that setting an
in-core label and marking it sticky means it _won't_ reread any on-disk
label that might be, or become, present).

Use DIOCSDINFO to set the in-core label but not the on-disk label, then
DIOCKLABEL to make it sticky.  Doesn't touch the disk.  (At least it
doesn't for me; if it does in -current, someone critically broke an
extremely useful facility and it needs fixing!)

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