Package: mount Version: 2.29.2-1+deb9 I foolishly had typed:
mount -o bind /dev/sdc1 /mnt/boot when I was trying to do a chroot/cross-install of Debian from Debian onto another drive, and the error only further confused the situation because it was not the correct error. It said this: mount: mount(2) failed: /mnt/boot: Not a directory which it WAS a directory just created, as evident from the output of ls -l /mnt: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 16 00:54 boot what it seems to have MEANT was, that /dev/sdc1 is not a directory, as I was trying to bind when a bind wasn't required for this. I am reporting this so another user less experienced and perhaps more confused doesn't have to bang their head off their keyboard. ;) suggested fix is to have it output the correct error message and/or maybe check to see if something is not a directory before saying that it isn't so as not to further confuse a situation. This is a standard Stretch system, stock kernel and all, amd64, I am sure the bug is likely easily reproducible on any Debian system. I'll leave classification of this bug up to the maintainer. Its obviously not real serious, because as far as I know bind is only suppose to bind one dir to another and this was incorrect usage, the only problem is that the error was not only not helpful, but was also incorrect and misled me to try figure out why it said a directory wasn't a directory until it dawned on me that I was binding when no bind was necessary. The whole point of plain language errors is to aid in resolving the problem which this error only compounds if you don't have the experience and knowledge to realize what is wrong when you step back and look at what you did.
