misleading error message from mount

[gpk]

Binary package hint: util-linux

If you accidentally try to mount a regular file (rather than a directory), mount gives you the error message on the wrong file.

See here:
kitchen:/$ sudo mkdir /mnt/desk.swap
kitchen:/$ sudo mount -t nfs4 desk.lan:/swap/kitchen /mnt/desk.swap/
mount.nfs4: mount point /mnt/desk.swap is not a directory
kitchen:/$ ls -l mnt
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-12-06 20:20 desk.swap
kitchen:/$

So, /mnt/desk.swap really is a directory. But, on the other end, .../swap/kitchen is a regular file, *not* a directory. So the mount correctly fails, but it reports that the wrong file "is not a directory". The problem is not the file at this end, but the file at the other end. Really, it should say "Attempting to mount a file, rather than a directory".

Possibly, this is an nfs4 problem rather than a problem with /sbin/mount .

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: mount 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Dec 6 20:23:11 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: util-linux

[gpk (gpk-kochanski)]

Looking at the error message, the problem seems to be in mount.nfs4 .