linux-kernel - Forced unmounting for removable devices

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Date:	Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:51:33 +0300
From:	Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu <maxdamage@...din.ro>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Forced unmounting for removable devices

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This might have been discussed a few years ago, but things have changed. 
I'm talking about patches like this one (I'm not the author): 
http://developer.osdl.org/dev/fumount/#kernel1

The current situation requires a way to forcibly unmount removable 
media. Consider the following (real) scenario. Someone has a box with 
hald + dbus + ivman to support "supermounting" the CDROM drive. He has 
to install a 2 CD application using Wine for example, but the setup 
application prevents normal unmounting of the first one. Then he goes on 
and pushes the button to eject the CD, lazy-unmounting the media. The 
kernel goes mad and all attempts to load the second CD fail (the kernel 
hasn't got rid of the first fs).

If there was anything like a real forced unmounting, things would have 
worked well, as on MS Windows itself.

As far as I can see, there is no other sane way to solve such problems. 
So, what's keeping such patches from making their way into the 
mainstream kernel? All (but maybe I haven't searched enough) arguments 
against such a feature that I've seen by now just say "it's not needed", 
"it's not worth it" and so on, and many of them refer to network mounts.

P.S.: I'm not saying lazy unmounting should be replaced. They both make 
sense, depending on the scenario.
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