[syslinux] [PATCH] Mending proposals for mkdiskimage

[H. Peter Anvin]

On 01/30/2014 10:13 AM, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> this is the diff which i consider a halfways reasonable solution
> for the following problems with mkdiskimage:
> 
> 1. Ignoring option -s if the target file is not suitable for truncate().
> 
> 2. Miscalculation of truncate() size by a factor of 512.
> 
> 3. The storage capacity of device files can only be measured
>    for Linux block devices.
> 
> 4. Long time of silent work when slow devices (e.g. USB sticks) get
>    formatted without option -s.
> 
> Another issue is not necessarily a problem but might leave the
> possibility of confusing firmware by e.g. an outdated GPT backup: 
> 
> 5. No zeroizing of eventual past-partition space.
>    Such space remains e.g. if the given number of megabytes or the
>    determined size of the target device is not aligned to cylinder
>    size. (It also remains if the device or existing file size is
>    larger than an explicitely given number of cylinders.)
>   

For zeroizing a device, there are other tools, e.g. scrub/diskscrub, but
an explicit option to zeroize the device might be a good idea.

Thank you for taking this on.  Single-issue patches would be great, indeed.

	-hpa