From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Apr 27 20:24:14 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA24151 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:24:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from jason05.u.washington.edu (root@jason05.u.washington.edu [140.142.78.6]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA23891 for ; Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:22:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jcwells@u.washington.edu) Received: from saul4.u.washington.edu (root@saul4.u.washington.edu [140.142.83.2]) by jason05.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id UAA26872; Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:22:57 -0700 Received: from s8-37-26.student.washington.edu (S8-37-26.student.washington.edu [128.208.37.26]) by saul4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.04) with SMTP id UAA09844; Mon, 27 Apr 1998 20:22:56 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 19:21:40 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jason C. Wells" X-Sender: jason@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu To: CyberPeasant cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Writable /usr? In-Reply-To: <199804280016.UAA03779@pollux.loco.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, 27 Apr 1998, CyberPeasant wrote: >As a newcomer to FreeBSD but a greybeard in the unix world, can I >politely ask why FreeBSD seems intent on making /usr a writable >partition? In another thread, someone reports that the user guide >recommends locating /tmp and /var on /usr. I believe I've seen >recommendations to supply users' home directories in the /usr >partition, too. (The default installation script sets you up >without a /home partition.) What's the rationale for this? Isn't >readonly /usr (and /, if possible) a Good Thing anymore? You may have to place /tmp or /var on user if you have a prexisting file system that starts running out of space. By default /var partition is mounted on /var and /tmp directory is mounted on /. Different unices do things differently as far as the hierarchy go. /usr is only writable by root by default. Root owns /usr by default. If I was insistent on adding a directory under /usr and I was root. I would not want to be bothered by a perms issue. That is to say, I think /usr being writable by root and root only is sane. Feel free to change it if your philosophy differs. By default /home is linked to /usr/home to provide compatibilty with other unix hierarchies. if you think there should be a seperate /home partition and file system, feel free to make one. I am of a mind that user land things go in /usr but I was weaned on FreeBSD so it is not unfamiliar to me. As a side note, IRIX puts home directories in /usr/people by default. Unix flavors abound. The core developers had to pick one way of doing things. This is the way that they chose. It does not prevent you from using your own experience to configure your system. Thank you, | Try some of this. It will show you where you're at. Jason Wells | http://www.freebsd.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message