Bug#398818: fails to assemble partitionable array as /dev/mdX even though --auto=partX is given

[martin f krafft]

Package: mdadm
Version: 2.5.6-5
Severity: minor

Looking at the manpage, it seems to me that the 'standard' device
names are only needed for --auto=yes:

  DEVICE NAMES
    While entries in the /dev directory can have any format you
    like, mdadm has an understanding of ’standard’ formats which it
    uses to guide its behaviour when creating device files via the
    --auto option.

This seems to suggest that --auto requires them, irrespective of
the argument passed to --auto. However,

  -a, --auto{=no,yes,md,mdp,part,p}{NN}
    [...] "md" causes a non-partition‐ able array to be used. "mdp",
    "part" or "p" causes a partition‐ able array (2.6 and later) to
    be used. "yes" requires the named md device to have a ’standard’
    format [...]

This seems to suggest that only "yes" requires the 'standard'
format.

Yet apparently, mdadm gets confused if a standard device name is
used together with an explicit --auto argument:

piper:~# mdadm -Cl1 -n2 -ap /dev/md_d99 /dev/sd[fh]1
mdadm: array /dev/md_d99 started.
piper:~# ls /dev/md_d99*
/dev/md_d99  /dev/md_d99p1  /dev/md_d99p2  /dev/md_d99p3  /dev/md_d99p4
piper:~# mdadm -S /dev/md_d99
mdadm: stopped /dev/md_d99

piper:~# mdadm -Aap /dev/my-raid-array /dev/sd[fh]1 
mdadm: /dev/my-raid-array has been started with 2 drives.
piper:~# ls /dev/my-raid-array*
/dev/my-raid-array   /dev/my-raid-array2  /dev/my-raid-array4
/dev/my-raid-array1  /dev/my-raid-array3
mdadm: stopped /dev/my-raid-array

piper:~# mdadm -Aap /dev/md99 /dev/sd[fh]1
mdadm: /dev/md99 has been started with 2 drives.
piper:~# ls /dev/md99*              
/dev/md99
piper:~# mdadm -S /dev/md99               
mdadm: stopped /dev/md99

So if I use /dev/md99, which is a standard name for
non-partitionable arrays, mdadm disregards the -ap argument.

It's arguable whether this is a bug; if it is not, maybe the
documentation could be clarified?

Also, see: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=116361154900006&r=1&w=2

Thanks,

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-2-amd64
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages mdadm depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]        1.5.8       Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                        2.3.6.ds1-8 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  lsb-base                     3.1-19      Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  makedev                      2.3.1-83    creates device files in /dev

Versions of packages mdadm recommends:
ii  module-init-tools             3.3-pre3-1 tools for managing Linux kernel mo
ii  postfix [mail-transport-agent 2.3.4-1    A high-performance mail transport 

-- debconf-show failed

-- 
 .''`.   martin f. krafft <madduck at debian.org>
: :'  :  proud Debian developer, author, administrator, and user
`. `'`   http://people.debian.org/~madduck - http://debiansystem.info
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing systems
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