Bug#597181: lvm2: let users override pvcreate checks

[Marc Lehmann]

Package: lvm2
Version: 2.02.39-7
Severity: wishlist


Some script accidentally overwrote the start of some disk with zeroes,
which wiped the partition table and pv header, but not the actual data.

While I could restore the partition table with fdisk, I couldn't restore
the pv with pvcreate --restorefile and --uuid, because of:

  Can't open /dev/sdd1 exclusively.  Mounted filesystem?

This was because the partition was indeed in sue by the root filesystem.

Unfortunately, rebooting would mean total almost loss of data, so I
created a loop device and restored the pc header to that, then copied it
to the real partition - problem solved.

I think pvcreate should have some kind of force option that lets one write
or restore a pv header no matter what - the tool already has support
for restore operations, and this should not be thwarted in emergency
situations.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages lvm2 depends on:
hi  libc6                        2.11.2-2    Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libdevmapper1.02.1           2:1.02.27-4 The Linux Kernel Device Mapper use
ii  libreadline5                 5.2-3.1     GNU readline and history libraries
ii  lsb-base                     3.2-20      Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip

Versions of packages lvm2 recommends:
ii  dmsetup                      2:1.02.27-4 The Linux Kernel Device Mapper use

lvm2 suggests no packages.

-- debconf information excluded