From: Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@usta.de>
Subject: Re: swapctl.8: state that nfsmntpt=/path should be crated as directory
To: "Kirill A. Korinsky" <kirill@korins.ky>
Cc: tech@openbsd.org
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 15:57:11 +0200

Hello Kirill,

Kirill A. Korinsky wrote on Wed, Aug 06, 2025 at 01:46:41PM +0200:

> I had noticed that nfsmntpt option do not state that /path should
> exist and it should be a directory, and not a file.
[...]
> Thought? Ok?

I think your reaoning makes sense.

The mount(8) manual says:

  DESCRIPTION
     [...]
     A mount point node must be an existing directory [...]

The mount(2) manual says:

  ERRORS
     [...]
     [ENOENT]   A component of dir does not exist.
     [ENOTDIR]  A component of dir is not a directory, [...]

> Index: swapctl.8
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /home/cvs/src/sbin/swapctl/swapctl.8,v
> diff -u -p -r1.37 swapctl.8
> --- swapctl.8	9 Jul 2024 05:19:41 -0000	1.37
> +++ swapctl.8	6 Aug 2025 11:45:52 -0000
> @@ -178,10 +178,11 @@ This value can be any valid integer,
>  with higher values receiving less priority.
>  .It nfsmntpt=/path
>  This option is useful for swapping to NFS files.
> -It specifies the local mount point to mount an NFS filesystem.
> -Typically, once
> -this mount has succeeded, the file to be used for swapping on will
> -be available under this mount point.
> +It specifies the local mount point
> +.Pa /path

Please use

  .Pf / Ar path

instead.  The meaning of ".Pa /path" would be "the directory with
the literal name /path" - but nobody is going to call their NFS
swap partition "/path".  Using the .Ar macro signals that "path"
is a placeholder for the actual path, which is an argument to
the option being documented.

> +to mount an NFS filesystem which shoud exist as a directory.

I think the following would read better; as a minimum, you would
have to apply s/shoud/should/, but usually not using "should" in
manuals is better when it's trivial to avoid.

  It specifies an existing directory
  .Pf / Ar path
  to be used as the local mount point for an NFS file system.

That would be OK schwarze@.
  Ingo

> +Typically, once this mount has succeeded, the file to be used for
> +swapping on will be available under this mount point.
>  For example:
>  .Bd -literal
>  server:/export/swap/client none swap sw,nfsmntpt=/swap