Drive detection stuff

[Holly Bostick]

Mike Hearn wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 11:18 +0100, Alexandre Julliard wrote:
>>Mike Hearn <mike at navi.cx> writes:
>>
>>>2) We don't add any device symlinks. Some programs need these
>>>   eg d:: -> /dev/cdrom
>>That should never be needed on a standard setup. If you know of a case
>>where it's required that should be considered a bug.
> 
> I thought some programs used them to determine free disk space 

Speaking of free disk space detection.... I have had it happen with at 
least 2 different programs (I can document more fully, just not this 
second) that if I have a 20 GB partition ("games", 6GB free) mounted in 
my home directory (/home/holly/games, but /home itself has only a few 
hundred MB free), and try to install an app to Y:\games\app_name, I get 
a warning (or in one case a stop) that there is not enough drive space 
to install the app because there is not enough space on Y:\ (i.e., in 
/home), but there is, in reality, enough space in Y:\games (i.e., in the 
mounted partition). Whether the program will allow me to install seems 
to depend on whether it's old and thinks it knows everything, or not so 
old, and is willing to let me override what it thinks it sees in terms 
of drive space; if the program allows me to install anyway, the program 
naturally installs fine, since there is enough space.

Now naturally, this could be solved by creating a direct symlink to 
/games in dosdevices, but that's an extra step I don't always feel like 
being bothered with (let's say I'm in a hurry), especially when the 
partition is mounted into /home, which is automatically symlinked in 
dosdevices anyway, so the drive is already accessible via a "short path" 
(y:\games); shortening the path to just a drive letter isn't necessarily 
worth the effort.

Sorry to introduce a side issue, but if drive space detection is related 
to drive detection, I thought I'd mention this so that it doesn't get 
lost in any adjusted code. This may be thought to be an 'exotic' setup, 
but I am sure I'm not the only one with mounted data partitions (LVM, 
actually, but they wouldn't have to be) for easy access, partition size 
management, and simplified backup.

Holly