Package: mount Version: 2.25.2-6 Severity: normal File: /sbin/losetup Dear Maintainer,
Not sure if this is upstream. BUG: losetup fails to list loop devices in use when /dev/loop directory exists. I thought the /dev/loop-control file was all that was needed by losetup, but perhaps not - it's been a few years since I perused the kernel's loop module source code, which also reminds me, at some point it would be nice for kernel loop device support to be fully dynamic - for someone inclined, that could be an opportunity to learn to code in C and get some kernel cred. Background: I created a number of scripts a few years back to facilitate working with chroots in loop mounted files, run deboostrap in these etc. To facilitate my automation I found it convenient to create my own loop device nodes in a directory I created, namely: /dev/loop/ Today I finally solved the Subject problem that has arisen (I don't know when) with the /sbin/losetup command for me - it fails to list info/ list all loop devices (as in produces no output whatsoever) when there is a directory named /dev/loop - at least, when I deleted this directory, losetup started working properly again. >From memory, an 'ancient' version of Debian actually made use of and/ or supported loop devices being in the sub directory /dev/loop/ - perhaps 5 or more years ago, but don't quote me, my memory may be faulty. FWIW, I think it is much tidier to have all loop devices in a sub directory of /dev/ , but my personal scripts need their own directory anyway, and I think that /dev/loop/ should contain all "default" / "auto generated"/ system loop devices - but that's just appearance and would probably require changes to many packages, just guessing. WORKAROUND: rename loop device directory to /dev/lloop (or pick any name other than something beginning with "/dev/loop"). * What led up to the situation? Custom bash scripts breaking. * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)? See WORKAROUND above - rename /dev/loop/ to /dev/something-else/ -- System Information: Debian Release: 8.3 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 4.3.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages mount depends on: ii libc6 2.19-18+deb8u4 ii libmount1 2.25.2-6 ii libselinux1 2.3-2 ii libsmartcols1 2.25.2-6 mount recommends no packages. Versions of packages mount suggests: ii nfs-common 1:1.2.8-9 -- no debconf information