> On Mar 1, 2017, at 14:45, Jeremy Lavergne <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> On 03/01/2017 12:54 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> I've just used Migration Assistant to migrate from one Sierra system to 
>> another. Since both systems are the same macOS version, I wasn't planning on 
>> following the Migration instructions in the wiki. (I was planning on 
>> rebuilding gmp, since I know it builds for a specific processor.) I ran into 
>> a problem that I haven't heard discussed before and I don't see addressed in 
>> the Migration instructions.
>> 
>> The problem is that the Migration Assistant explained that it would relocate 
>> users' home directories to the /Users directory -- all those users accounts 
>> that MacPorts had created for the various ports I've installed over the 
>> years. (cyrus, postgres, rabbitmq, snort, squid, etc.) And also MacPorts' 
>> own macports user account. It not only moved the home directories into 
>> /Users, it also added the standard directories (Desktop, Documents, 
>> Downloads, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures) to each one, and edited the 
>> user account so that its NFSHomeDirectory attribute points to the new 
>> location.
>> 
>> Obviously, I didn't want Migration Assistant to do any of that. But I didn't 
>> appear to be given much choice. For each user account, there was only a 
>> checkbox, which I kept checked because I wanted the users transferred to the 
>> new machine. I did not know what would happen if I unchecked the checkboxes: 
>> Would those user accounts and their home directories not be migrated? Would 
>> the user accounts be migrated without their home directories? Would the user 
>> accounts be migrated with the home directories kept in the original 
>> locations?
>> 
>> It looks like MacPorts automatically recreates its home directory in the 
>> normal location, but does not update the NFSHomeDirectory attribute of the 
>> user account.
>> 
>> What should users do if they are in this situation? Manually move each home 
>> directory back to where it belongs, delete the standard directories, and 
>> edit the user account's NFSHomeDirectory attribute? (That's a lot of work.) 
>> Is there anything users can do during or before migration to avoid this 
>> situation?
>> 
> 
> Call Apple Support :-)
> 
> Ever-so-slightly more helpful:
> I don't think we should worry about unusual cases (having more than one
> mac migrating to another one) unless we want to spell that out as a
> support use case.
> 

I'm not talking about an unusual case. I'm talking about the completely normal 
case that I expect all users will undergo when moving to a new computer: 
complete the setup assistant and use it to transfer data from their old 
computer. If they accept the defaults of that operation, as I did, they are 
left in the situation I am now left in.

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