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Rich Freeman posted on Fri, 08 Apr 2016 06:36:48 -0400 as excerpted: |
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> Really though the main point of merging these paths into /usr is to get |
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> all the static content of a distro into a single path, which can then be |
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> maintained as a read-only filesystem, mounted across multiple systems, |
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> protected using tripwire or signature checking, and so on. As has been |
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> pointed out the rolling release nature of Gentoo reduces some of these |
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> benefits somewhat. To truly get these benefits we would also need to |
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> rethink how post-install configuration gets managed as was already |
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> pointed out. |
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Somewhat unrelated to the /usr or bin/sbin merge here, as (nearly) |
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everything the package manager installs to any of its paths (including |
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/usr, FWIW, but that's easy because my is a /usr -> . symlink) is on /, |
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here, but FWIW, I actually do keep my / read-only mounted by default. |
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So / is only mounted writable to update and/or change configuration. |
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That includes /etc/ and of course my /usr -> . symlink, as well as parts |
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of /var. The parts of /var that system services need to write into |
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during normal operation (well, the ones that need to be permanent, those |
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like /var/run that should be temporary are already on tmpfs mounts) are |
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symlinked into subdirs under /home/var, with /home of course being |
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mounted writable by default, so they can be written into during normal |
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operation despite / being mounted read-only. |
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Works out pretty well, actually, improving reliability of /, since it's |
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normally mounted ro and thus is fully stable in the event of a system |
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crash. Not having to worry about being unable to get to my system |
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recovery tools on / in the event of a bad crash because / was mounted |
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read-only and thus wasn't susceptible to the damage that writable-mounted |
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filesystems can sustain in the event of a hard shutdown is nice. =:^) |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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