Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Six non-Gentoo installs
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 19:54:52
Message-Id: CAGfcS_kuq7zHy36S5howJa7O-v9yMGNBbR7X8iwU-SYJ1L0g3w@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Six non-Gentoo installs by thegeezer
1 On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 8:14 AM, thegeezer <thegeezer@×××××××××.net> wrote:
2 > On 15/10/14 04:14, Rich Freeman wrote:
3 >>
4 >> One thing I do like is the trend towards putting default configs in
5 >> /usr and using /etc more for overrides.
6 >
7 > you should have a look at unionfs or aufs -- what you can do is have an
8 > initram that mounts /etc from lvm-stock-etc and then unionfs with
9 > lvm-custom-etc
10 > this allows you to have a standard lvm layout everywhere and then only
11 > need to rsync the lvm-custom partitions
12 > if you are feeling really fruity could use network locations for the
13 > stock locations and an sd card or small storage for the custom partition
14
15 That could potentially work, but it has some problems:
16
17 1. Updates will get applied to the unionfs, so it will gather
18 untouched files over time. That is, unless you unmount the unionfs
19 before doing updates (which could be difficult if the system is
20 otherwise operational).
21 2. If you modify one line in a file in /etc, the entire file with the
22 modification will be present in the unionfs.
23
24 Using the split /usr - /etc approach usually requires application
25 support as both configuration files need to be sourced, with specific
26 settings in /etc overriding those in /usr, but any unmodified settings
27 being taken from /usr. Many (most?) packages do not support this.
28
29 --
30 Rich