On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:09:07 PST
Uwe Dippel <udippel at gmail.com> wrote:
> [i]Is there a current Linux distro that actually configures itself so
> this can happen? Most of the ones I've seen don't bother.[/i]
>
> Mike, does 'Debian' or 'Ubuntu' ring a bell? Both cater for this situation in
> the text based installer.
There are two questions involved here.
The first one is, what does it take to set the system up with /home on
a separate file system. Any Unix distro of any age will let you do
this. How many do it by default? Linux systems tend not to, because
file systems are partitions, which are a pain to create and in short
supply.
The second question is, if I do this by hand, how hard is it to reuse
the old /home? Will the default install recognize it and ask what
should be done with it? Can I at least mount it without destroying it
in in the custom install?
> [i]Whether any of the
> current installation scripts are smart enough to let you do so is
> another question.[/i]
>
> What do you mean with 'smart'? I would be even more disheartened if ZFS could
> only either distroy and recreate a whole pool. Does ZFS not allow to simply
> dump files to all but a single location, rpool/export?
I mean, does the installation software have code in it to let you do
what you want. I.e., is the answer to the second question above "yes"
or "no"?
It's currently "no." It's a limitation with the installation software,
not ZFS. Most Solaris/ZFS distributions are a major step forward
compared to Linux distributions because the default installation puts
/export on a separate file system - thanks top ZFS file systems being
easy to create in arbitrary number.
> I only talk about adding two hooks to the installer script:
> One that allows the user to keep the existing filesystem/pool for the new
> installation (and skip the creation), and one that skips the eventual writing
> of data into /export/home.
Exactly. Nobody has added those two hooks to the installation
software, which is why the answer is no. (Well, SXCE might be able to
do it in the custom install - I haven't explored all the options, but
it's using older installation software than 2008.05.) I suspect the
capability will appear as the software matures, because that kind of
control of disk formatting is pretty much required for modern
installations.
<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.
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