From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 9 05:44:56 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F2BAF7CD for ; Sun, 9 Nov 2014 05:44:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B5A1777B for ; Sun, 9 Nov 2014 05:44:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-37-193.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.37.193]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0906424B3E; Sun, 9 Nov 2014 06:44:53 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id sA95irIh002040; Sun, 9 Nov 2014 06:44:53 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2014 06:44:53 +0100 From: Polytropon To: "T. Michael Sommers" Subject: Re: Where do user files go these days? Message-Id: <20141109064453.2451a5ab.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <545EF01A.8020804@gmail.com> References: <545ED36B.8040207@gmail.com> <20141109035011.a3fea3b3.freebsd@edvax.de> <545EF01A.8020804@gmail.com> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 05:44:57 -0000 On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 23:39:54 -0500, T. Michael Sommers wrote: > On 11/8/2014 9:50 PM, Polytropon wrote: > > On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 21:37:31 -0500, T. Michael Sommers wrote: > >> I've noticed that neither the instructions for partitioning a disk in > >> the handbook, nor hier(7), mention a /home partition. Is such a > >> partition still used? If not, where do user files go? > > > > It _can_ be used. Traditionally, /home is a symlink > > to /usr/home, so if you create partitions according > > to OS functionality, the users' data will be stored > > on the /usr partition. But you are completely free > > to create a dedicated /home partition - on the same > > disk or even on a different disk; if you put every- > > thing into one big partition, this will also work. > > The installer will automatically create the symlink > > as /home@ -> /usr/home for you. > > Thanks. In every system I can remember, /home was a separate file > system (when it existed at all), and I didn't see /usr/home in hier(7), > so I wondered. Correct; "man hier" doesn't mention it because it's a "user thing" mostly, as the OS and system services do not use it (or require it to function properly). Sharing /usr with home as one partition is (in most cases) less critical than putting all "functional subtrees" into one and the same partition, so some disk-filling "runaway process" could stop /tmp, /var and even / from working properly... > (In the Good Old Days (V7), all the user directories > were put directly in /usr (so you'd have /usr/fred, and /usr/john, and > so on). I've even seen /usr/bwk in this documentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0 It can be seen at 13:30. > I'm surprised they're back under /usr, even if a level deeper.) > It was also possible that some entirely new scheme had been created. A thing typical found on Solaris is /export/home, whereas on IRIX it's /usr/people, if I remember correctly. On Linux, it's usually a root file system entry named /home, and the installers often defaults to creating one partition where all "functional subtrees" reside. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...