From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1SCWzX-0006R7-VX for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:03:20 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 579ECE071E; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:03:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from cdptpa-omtalb.mail.rr.com (cdptpa-omtalb.mail.rr.com [75.180.132.120]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6308FE07CA for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:02:04 +0000 (UTC) X-Authority-Analysis: v=2.0 cv=Hvb06jvS c=1 sm=0 a=xvUQ5II7JMRnhGkbsebX1A==:17 a=txVIi73YdL4A:10 a=NfYe8Kw8RqEA:10 a=6WvLBrxrMboA:10 a=wPDyFdB5xvgA:10 a=Uxmo08gEHq4A:10 a=kj9zAlcOel0A:10 a=X9kCVFQLvnwjxSskRi0A:9 a=Sk5flsXnnlS7PEAhDXMA:7 a=CjuIK1q_8ugA:10 a=knyxtoVKISQA:10 a=xvUQ5II7JMRnhGkbsebX1A==:117 X-Cloudmark-Score: 0 X-Originating-IP: 97.102.250.187 Received: from [97.102.250.187] ([97.102.250.187:39514] helo=basement.kutulu.org) by cdptpa-oedge04.mail.rr.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.3.46 r()) with ESMTP id 5C/FE-16302-B58C17F4; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:02:04 +0000 Received: from localhost (basement.kutulu.org [127.0.0.1]) by basement.kutulu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A72D5112001 for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:03 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at kutulu.org Received: from basement.kutulu.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (basement.kutulu.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id ebcZy9y6mpCp for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:03 -0400 (EDT) Received: from MIKEDESKTOP (173.221.47.98.nw.nuvox.net [173.221.47.98]) by basement.kutulu.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 06C447D801B for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:02 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mike Edenfield" To: References: <20120327133728.GA3754@acm.acm> In-Reply-To: <20120327133728.GA3754@acm.acm> Subject: RE: [gentoo-user] After /usr conflation: why not copy booting software to /sbin rather than initramfs? Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:02 -0400 Message-ID: <01c301cd0c22$2fac1300$8f043900$@kutulu.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 14.0 Thread-Index: AQI/1jabVc9z4KztcH5BI3TVjfITpJWYlgkQ Content-Language: en-us X-Archives-Salt: 534e3ba9-d476-4e0e-8381-3540c9116dca X-Archives-Hash: f895007584a7f79ab2e67dc4c039b9cb > From: Alan Mackenzie [mailto:acm@muc.de] > Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 9:37 AM > My question: what, technically, prevents me from copying the booting > software instead to /sbin and booting the system that way? Nothing; in fact, this was the general solution to the problem of "something else in /usr/{sbin,bin,lib} is needed at boot" for a long time. More and more software was getting moved into /{s,}bin, and in particular into /lib, to make it available in the early boot stages. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you can ensure that any hard-coded paths to those binaries are updated properly. As you move more and more software off of /usr into / you start to realize that the idea of "tiny partition that contains just what I need to boot and mount /usr" is becoming "not so tiny" anymore. The distinction between what is "boot" software versus "user" software gets less clear. Then it's just question of how far you take this process before you reach your personal threshold of questioning why you have two partitions at all. Whether you reach that point or not depends on how complex your boot process is, what you actually need running to boot, and how personally invested in a split /usr you happen to be :) --Mike