[gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr

[William Hubbs]

All,

a significant change is taking place with several upstreams that will affect
us in gentoo, so I wanted to bring it to the list for discussion.

Udev, kmod (which is a replacement for module-init-tools which will be needed
by >=udev-176), systemd, and soon others, are advocating a major change
to the locations where binaries and libraries are stored on linux
systems.

The goal is to deprecate /bin, /lib, /sbin and /usr/sbin. My
understanding is that they want to move software that is installed in
/bin, /sbin and /usr/sbin to /usr/bin. Also, they want to move
everything from /lib to /usr/lib.

I have been working with robbat2 on solutions to the separate /usr issue
(That is why I have specifically cc'd him on this email)
which will allow people to not use an initramfs. If we migrate
everything off of the root fs to /usr, all of those solutions become
moot. On the other hand, if we don't migrate, we run the risk of
eventually having our default configuration not supported by upstream.

I see three options:

1) Start migrating packages along with upstream and have everyone who
has a separate /usr (including me by the way) start using an initramfs
of some kind, either dracut or one that we generate specifically for
gentoo. The reason I suggest the initramfs, is, unfortunately if we
migrate everything, nothing else would work.

2) Combine the sbin and bin directories both  on the root
filesystem and in /usr by moving things from /sbin to /bin and /usr/sbin
to /usr/bin.

3) Try to maintain  things the way they are as long as possible.

Whether or not I like what is happening personally, I think we should
consider the first option, because I think it will get more and more
difficult for us to do anything else over time. And we will eventually
find ourselves not supported by upstreams.

Please discuss; I want to hear what you think.

William