Re: [gentoo-user] separate / and /usr to require initramfs 2013-11-01

[Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@libertytrek.org>]

On 2013-09-29 5:35 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tanstaafl wrote:
>> Ok, but... everything I've read and personal experience over the years
>> shows that space required for /usr should not change much, especially
>> constantly grow over time (like requirements for /home can and will)-
>> it may fluctuate (increase, decrease) *a little* over time, but it
>> definitely should not grow substantially, so, if you had to resize it,
>> most likely it is because you simply didn't allocate enough room to
>> start with.

> So my experience doesn't matter any then?

Dale, that is NOT what I said, and nothing I am saying is intended to be 
offensive.

> My /usr does vary and sometimes varies quite a bit.

The question you should be asking yourself then, is WHY?

> That is why I had to resize the thing. Saying that I didn't make it
> large enough to begin with isn't the point.

It is precisely the point...

The fact is, there is nothing in there that *should* vary much (once 
your system is fully installed) - unless you are using it in some 
non-standard way, and/or not occasionally cleaning out /usr/src (as Alan 
pointed out)... and if either of those is the case, then as I said, it 
is your own fault that you needed to resize it.

Don't you see how contradictory it is to say that you will change from 
gentoo to distro-x because gentoo has made a change that requires you to 
either merge /usr into / or use an 'init thingy', when distro-x, that 
you say you will change to, USES AN INIT THINGY? Doesn't that sound 
irrational to you?

What would be logical and rational would be to either:

a) learn how to use an init thingy (which from some more reading I've 
been doing, doesn't look quite as bad as it seemed initially), or

b) determine what is a sane size for /usr, make / an appropriate size to 
subsume it, and merge it into /.

Now, if you don't have enough room in / to merge it, then obviously it 
will be more painful, but once it is done, you never have to worry about 
it again - and no init thingy.

> When people use LVM, the reason they use it is so that we can resize
> things when needed.

Yes, and I use LVM - but again, this is only important for dirs/mnt 
points that have the potential to consume more and more disk space... 
that potential is simply not there for (a properly configured and 
maintained) /usr...

> And what is rational for you, is not rational to me.  Since you can
> dismiss mine, I can dismiss yours too.   Funny how that works huh?

Yep... and you can also dismiss my claim that jumping off that 1,000' 
cliff won't result in you going splat, but it doesn't change the fact 
that if you jump off of it, you WILL go splat. I just wouldn't get the 
chance to say I told you so.