Re: `losetup --remove` is confusing, and misuse silently fails

Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]> Fri, 17 Oct 2025 10:55:17 +0200

Newsgroups	org.kernel.vger.util-linux
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Op 16-10-2025 om 12:28 schreef Karel Zak:
> https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/pull/3803

Misusing the tool now gives a surprising a result:

   # ./losetup --remove --detach
   losetup: /dev/--detach: remove failed: Success

   # ./losetup --remove --detach loop0
   losetup: /dev/--detach: remove failed: Success
   losetup: /dev/loop0: remove failed: Device or resource busy

Ideally, `losetup` would first interpret all options, and complain
that --remove and --detach cannot be combined.  (The code for that
seems to be there, but it doesn't appear to have any effect.)

But at least it shouldn't print "Success" when something failed.


Benno

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