On Monday, October 20, 2003, at 10:03  AM, Bill Studenmund wrote:

> /etc/partitions is bad for two reasons. First, how do you use it to fix
> the root file system? Second, disks can move around. How do you ensure
> that the /etc/partitions info for a disk move with it?

Speaking as someone who has been doing a lot of work with RAID and 
"transportable" volume management recently, I'd just like to say that I 
think any new scheme that requires a configuration file is going 
entirely in the wrong direction.  Disks and groups of disks should be 
entire self-describing, carrying all of their associated metadata with 
them.

         -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>