On Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 9:38 PM Grant Taylor <
gtaylor@gentoo.tnetconsulting.net> wrote:
[...]
> I don't have any current first hand experience with /usr being a
> separate file system without using an initramfs / initrd.  So I'm going
> to have to take what you, and others, say on faith that it can't
> /currently/ be done.  But I've got to say, that I find that idea
> disturbing and highly suspicious.

If it's computable it can be done, of course. Therefore it can be done,
currently. I don't think nobody has said it absolutely cannot be done.

The thing is:

1. How much work implies to get it done.
2. Who is gonna do said work.

The answer to 1 is "a lot", since (as someone mentioned in the thread) it
involves changing not only the init (nevermind systemd; *ALL* init
systems), but all applications that may require to use binaries in /usr
before it's mounted.

The answer to 2 is, effectively, "nobody", since it requires a big
coordinated effort, stepping into the toes of several projects,
significantly augmenting their code complexity for a corner case[1] that
can be trivially be solved with an initramfs, which it just works.

Arguing against this trivial (and IMHO, elegant) solution is tilting at
windmills. Specially if it is for ideological reasons instead of technical
ones.

Regards.

[1] I firmly believe that's the situation nowadays.
--
Dr. Canek Peláez Valdés
Profesor de Carrera Asociado C
Departamento de Matemáticas
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México