[CoLoCo] brainstorms Re: permission question

[Paul Schwartz]

----- Original Message ----
> From: Kevin Fries <kfries at cctus.com>
> To: Ubuntu Colorado Local Community Team <ubuntu-us-co at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:03:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [CoLoCo] brainstorms Re:  permission question
> 
> 
> > This seems like a great improvement. Does it exist in 8.04? The
> > language in the wiki is ambiguous.
> > 
> > While not perfect the open source development process seems more
> > responsive to adding/fixing user friendly/desired features. Compare
> > and contrast to M$.
> 
> Actually this is an Ubuntu only thing.  Most distros default behavior is
> to have a separate /home, and many have a separate /boot also.  These
> are great features that harken back to "Old *Nix" based systems.  It has
> a tendency to confuse first time Windows converts though.  I firmly
> believe that is a large part of the reason why Ubuntu set up this way.
> 
> Here is a perfect example of why I think the one partition was a short
> sided decision, and I am glad it is finally getting re-examined (by the
> way, when I brought this up a year ago, I got hammered).
> 
> When I install Ubuntu for desktop, I ALWAYS create a separate /boot
> and /home directory.  On servers where files are not designed to be
> stored and retrieved as files (i.e. a mail server, a web server, etc) I
> always create a separate /boot and /srv folder.  On servers that both
> serve files in general (cups, web, anonymous ftp,  mail) and store and
> retrieve file systems (samba, nfs, gfs, etc) by named users, I create
> all three.  The OS should always stand alone, and separate from user
> assessable files.  If the server is highly mission critical, I often
> create a separate /var/log to prevent logs from overloading the OS
> partition.
> 
> This came in very useful just the other day... I tried to upgrade my
> home machine from Gutsy to Hardy.  It turned ugly.  The upgrade did not
> go well because I was trying it from CD instead of live over the
> Internet (my satellite system does not like the volume of traffic when I
> do these types of upgrades).  My system was trashed.  But, since all my
> files were on a separate partition, recovery was only an hour or so
> away... I kept my partitions as is, allowed the install to
> reformat /boot, /, and swap, but leave /home alone.  My system was back,
> my desktop just as I left it, but a few programs missing... no big deal,
> apt-get install ...
> 
> Keeping data and programs separate is an old fashion idea that Ubuntu
> got away from... its is a good idea to re-discover.
> 
> -- 
> Kevin Fries
> Senior Linux Engineer
> Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
> A Division of Japan Communications Inc.
> 
I think you're right, but there isn't enough info out there about the proper way to size the partitions. This presents the noobie or near-noobie with a lot of difficult decisions if they don't just use one partition.

JMHO

Paul