[Bug 284525] bsdinstall can make running system unbootable

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=284525

            Bug ID: 284525
           Summary: bsdinstall can make running system unbootable
           Product: Base System
           Version: 14.2-RELEASE
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Some People
          Priority: ---
         Component: misc
          Assignee: bugs@FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: barneywolff@gmail.com

Running bsdinstall on an existing system can make the system fail and be
unbootable without manual console intervention.

Script /usr/src/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/zfsboot line 804 forces export of
all existing zpools. There is NO warning of this, only that the disk/partition
being set up will be destroyed. The ASSumption seems to be that bsdinstall is
running on new hardware with the install medium as the only existing
filesystem. Running bsdinstall on a working system to create a new system disk
risks disaster. If the existing system has only a root zpool with all fbsd
components, disaster is averted because the export fails. But if it has a root
zpool and a separate zpool for /usr, /var and so on, the system immediately
fails, the session drops, and no new login is possible. What's worse, power
cycling will not let the system come up, because the non-root zpool has been
exported. If console access is available the operator can boot to single user
and re-import the needed zpool. Otherwise, the system is out of service
indefinitely.

The basic issue here is that it's all but impossible to tell if there is a
zpool on the install target, because the target may be described in a zpool
status as either a device like da3p2 or diskid/..... or gpt/..... or ... . I
certainly cannot predict how fbsd will choose to describe a given
disk/partition. And once the system chooses a diskid/... the da3p2 description
disappears. I have another system with a mirrored zpool where one of two
identical disks is listed in the diskid form and the other in the da3p2 form.

At the very minimum bsdinstall should not do zpool export -F, but just plain
export if it's done at all. Or just display the zpool list to the user and let
the user decide whether there's a pool on the disk about to be destroyed.

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