Re: [gentoo-dev] usr merge

[Luca Barbato]

On 08/04/16 14:55, Rich Freeman wrote:
> The purpose of a /usr merge is to get all the stateless stuff into one place.

beside what you have in /etc ...

usr-merge, in practice just moves early-boot/core tools where the rest
of the userspace lives.

> Some of the ultimate goals include:
> 1.  A read-only /usr

And mixing early-boot tools with post-boot userspace would help how?

> 2.  Having /usr signature-verified at boot

Because /etc is totally unimportant.

> 3.  Having everything that runs signature-checked before it is run

Because obviously you do not need to signature-check per executable.

> 4.  Having /usr shared across many containers/etc.

Because obviously it is the early-boot userspace spoiling this.

> 5.  Stateless systems - boot with a /usr and it creates the rest
> dynamically, and they're lost when the container is shut down.

Sounds backwards in many different ways.

> Put it this way, if you were designing a new OS from scratch today,
> would it make more sense to put all the distro-supplied
> binaries/libraries under a single path off the root, or off of many
> paths from the root?

You mean /usr/local ?

The whole thing ceases to be important once you have bind-mount and PATH
imho.

There is the specific need to have all the tools needed to boot in a
single place that can be accessed with ease.

It being /bin or initramfs or /boot/bin is completely cosmetic.

But you need a easy and reliable way to get it.

The idea of having / just holding the mount points and then have all the
other paths mounted by the early boot is fun only on paper I'm afraid.
(and we aren't even getting there since I bet /etc will stay in the root
partition for ages).

lu