Running with unmounted user file systems

[mwm%ucbopal.CC at ucb-vax.ARPA]

Facing the prospect of an 8600 with 10 or more customer file systems,
we decided to investigate the possibility of bringing the system up
multi-user with one (or more) user file systems unmounted. We could
then provide service (partial, maybe) to 90+ percent of the user
community while some friendly su was fixing the broken file system(s).

The technical side of things was easy. I've got running software that
fsck's everything, notices whether fsck was happy with what it left,
decides whether you can go multi-user without that file system, issues
only the correct mounts, and plasters warnings in the appropriate
places.

Now the hard part becomes visible. What do you do about mail to users
on that file system (can't find .forward files), and similar things.

The question I've got is if anybody else has already solved these
problems? It'd sure save us some time (and undoubtedly
head-scratching).

	Thanx,
	<mike