mangler@cit-vax.UUCP (10/04/87)
This is the second time in a month that having /usr/ucb/netstat
on the root filesystem could have saved me several hours of
head-scratching. It's hard to figure out why an NFS-mount of
/usr fails when all the necessary tools are on /usr!
With Sun having moved a bunch of stuff to /usr/etc, more utilities
come to mind, such as dumpfs and tunefs (tunefs only works with the
filesystem dismounted, how is one going to use /usr/etc/tunefs upon
/usr, if /usr is dismounted?)
My server developed some flakey blocks on /usr, and I wanted to find
out which files contained them. Guess where icheck and ncheck are?
Right, /usr/etc.
What if I needed to install a default route in order to NFS-mount /usr?
Yep, route is in /usr/etc.
Can't mount /usr because of Yellow-Pages problems? /usr/bin/ypcat isn't
going to be available to help diagnose.
Kind of defeats the purpose of a root filesystem if you can't do anything
until /usr is mounted...
Don Speck speck@vlsi.caltech.edu {amdahl,elroy,oberon}!cit-vax!speckstpeters@dawn.steinmetz (10/05/87)
> This is the second time in a month that having /usr/ucb/netstat > on the root filesystem could have saved me several hours of > head-scratching. It's hard to figure out why an NFS-mount of > /usr fails when all the necessary tools are on /usr! One would think that after the first time, you'd have sense to copy netstat into the client's root partition *on the server*. :-) There's also nothing preventing you from putting /usr in each client's root partition, if that's what you really want and is more important than saving disk space. > With Sun having moved a bunch of stuff to /usr/etc, more utilities > come to mind, such as dumpfs and tunefs (tunefs only works with the > filesystem dismounted, how is one going to use /usr/etc/tunefs upon > /usr, if /usr is dismounted?) /usr/etc isn't actually *in* the /usr partition, it's a mount point for the server's /usr.MC680[12]0/etc, which should be a hint about why Sun moved them. Mount /usr/etc on a mount point not in /usr (/mnt?) and umount /usr. Or again, if you have lots of disk space, put copies in every client's root partition. > My server developed some flakey blocks on /usr, and I wanted to find > out which files contained them. Guess where icheck and ncheck are? > Right, /usr/etc. Moving from client complaints to server complaints, you can move /usr/etc to a temporary mount point on the server too. But if you couldn't figure that out, maybe you shouldn't play with things like icheck and ncheck. :-) Etc., etc., ... Dick St.Peters GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@ge-crd.arpa uunet!steinmetz!stpeters
stpeters@dawn.steinmetz (10/05/87)
In article <7523@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> *I* wrote: >/usr/etc isn't actually *in* the /usr partition, it's a mount point >for the server's /usr.MC680[12]0/etc, which should be a hint about why >Sun moved them. > >Mount /usr/etc on a mount point not in /usr (/mnt?) and umount /usr. >Or again, if you have lots of disk space, put copies in every client's >root partition. Maybe it's the 6.5 inches of snow yesterday ==> no power, no heat all all day, all night, yet - anyway, the above is wrong. /usr/etc (on a client) is very definitely in what is /usr on the client and is /usr.MC.680[12]0 on the server. If you want to run utilities in /usr/etc with /usr not mounted, you have to copy them out - or mount some other server's /usr.MC<whatever> somewhere. Dick St.Peters GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@ge-crd.arpa uunet!steinmetz!stpeters
rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) (10/20/87)
From: Don Speck <mangler@cit-vax.Caltech.EDU>
Kind of defeats the purpose of a root filesystem if you can't do anything
until /usr is mounted...
At least SUN lets you set partition sizes. How many times have I said
`at our site the root partition includes /usr'? Okay, so we don't run
NFS and/or YP to any appreciable degree, so I can't comment on that
environment, but I got tired of not having all the system tools available
in single user mode.
In any case, you can make the root partition as big as you like and
move all that you need back there.
Don Speck speck@vlsi.caltech.edu {amdahl,elroy,oberon}!cit-vax!speck
(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
National Bureau of Standards
Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688