Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 22:05:53
Message-Id: 521A7EE9.8000706@gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo by Tanstaafl
1 On 18/08/2013 21:38, Tanstaafl wrote:
2 > On 2013-08-18 5:16 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:
3 >> While we're on the topic, what's the obsession with having different
4 >> bits of the file hierarchy as different*mount points*? That harks back
5 >> to the days when the only way to have a chunk of fs space be different
6 >> was to have it as a separate physical thing and mount it. Nowadays we
7 >> have something better - ZFS. To me this makes so much more sense. I have
8 >> a large amount of storage called a pool, and set size limits and
9 >> characteristics for various directories without having to deal with
10 >> fixed size volumes.
11 >
12 > Eh? *Who* has ZFS? Certainly not the linux kernel.
13 >
14
15 FreeBSD
16
17 You can get ZFS on Linux with relative ease, you just have to build it
18 yourself. Distros feel they can't redistribute that code.
19
20
21
22 The bit you quoted shouldn't be read to mean that we have ZFS, it works
23 on Linux and everyone should activate it and use it and chuck ext* out
24 the window.
25
26 I meant that we've been chugging along since 1982 or so with ancient
27 disk concepts that come mostly from MS_DOS and limited by that hardware
28 of that day.
29
30 And here we are in 2013 *still* fiddling with partition tables, fixed
31 file systems, fixed mountpoints and we still bang our heads weekly
32 because sda3 has proven to be too small, and it's a *huge* mission to
33 change it. Yes, LVM has made this sooooo much easier (kudos to Sistina
34 for that) but I believe the entire approach is wrong.
35
36 The ZFS approach is better - here's the storage, now do with it what I
37 want but don't employ arbitrary fixed limits and structures to do it.
38
39
40 --
41 Alan McKinnon
42 alan.mckinnon@×××××.com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo Pandu Poluan <pandu@××××××.info>
Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk>
Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@×××××××××××.org>