Michael wrote:
>
> dfox wrote:
> >
> > > *click* Ahh, now it all makes sense. If I'm understanding you and Randy
> > > correctly, there's always a folder within / called usr. If I wish, I can
> > > mount a partition as /usr and that hides the contents of the 'real' usr
> >
> > Essentially. But /usr is there, at least if the directory entry for
> > it is created. The 'hiding' isn't really an intention, but it's a
> > side effect. If you have your normal usr on another partition, then you
> > have just a directory entry 'usr' on that partition. Once it's mounted
> > at /usr, tnen the previously (usually) empty directory gets 'replaced'
> > with what's at the mount point. The idea is not necessarily to hade
> > any existing contents in /usr, but of course if you were to stuff a
> > few files in there, and then mounted a partition at /usr, and then
> > unmounted it - guess what -- :) your original contents at /usr would
> > still be there.
> >
> > Another example -- most people put /home on a separate partition. As
> > an example, my physical partition /dev/hdb1 is just a filesystem with
> > a couple of entries (dfox root and others) in it. /hone is not there.
> > But /home is a directory entry on the / partition. Without that partition
> > mounted, I would not be albe to go to my home directory (/home/dfox) because
> > /home contains no files (and thus no directory 'dfox'). But if I take
> > that partition and put it at /home by mounting it, then (voila) I get
> > /home/dfox, /home/root, /home/ftp and the others.
> >
> > And if I had a partition with /home in it, I'd end up with /home/home/dfox,
> > which is obviously not what is needed :).
> >
> > By extension, '/' (the root) doesn't really exist, then. I have a
> > partition that contains directories such as bin, usr, etc, var
> > perhaps, lib, and so forth, and I mount that on /, and I get /bin,
> > /usr, /lib, and so forth. / isn't physically at least, a partition.
> >
>
> Damn, that lot made my head spin... I will read it again in the morning.
>
> I thought that during initializing if a partition didn't exist (i.e.
> /home), it creates it as a directory. If it does exist, it gets treated
> like a directory. If a partition fits inside a directory (i.e. /home/http)
> it creates the directory /home and just points the pointer for /http to the
> partition.
>
> Michael
>
And to add one more slight thing. I read somewhere that in Linux everything
is a file. Thus /home is a file of type directory in the root directory
whether it be a partition or not.
2 B or not 2 B
a partition or directory
Yeah its lame... I is warped sometimes
Michael
--
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get it back in.
-- H.R. Haldeman
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