bill@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Bill Shirley) (06/24/91)
Question: I am mounting a filesystem using NFS (from one Sun 4 SPARCstation to another). I know that if I mount it onto a directory with files in it, the files become unavailable. Is it a bad idea to do this or not? Specifically, I want /usr/lib/X11 files to be contained on one machine (there is a lot of font info that takes up space). But if the server or network is down, I want the others to be able to startup X (and for that they need minimal font files, rgb files, ...). I already have put important executables (X (server), xterm, ...) on each machine, but have the frills on the server (oclock, xcal, ...). I have RTFM, but failed to find a mention of "mounting over" files. -- ____ ____ ____ Bill Shirley / ___| / ___| / ___| bill@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov |_|omputer|_|ciences|_|orporation _______________________________ _ _ _ Opinions expressed are obtained| | |___ ___| | | |___ by a room full of immortal apes| \____| |____/ \____| with unbreakable typewriters. | ~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER~~~~~~~~~~~
gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston) (06/25/91)
In article <1991Jun24.155616.22965@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> bill@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Bill Shirley) writes: > I am mounting a filesystem using NFS (from one Sun 4 SPARCstation > to another). I know that if I mount it onto a directory with files in it, > the files become unavailable. Is it a bad idea to do this or not? > Specifically, I want /usr/lib/X11 files to be contained on one machine > (there is a lot of font info that takes up space). But if the server or > network is down, I want the others to be able to startup X (and for that > they need minimal font files, rgb files, ...). I already > have put important executables (X (server), xterm, ...) on each machine, > but have the frills on the server (oclock, xcal, ...). Yes, it will work; I have a similar setup for the console terminfo files so that I can use vi in single user mode without having to mount /usr. The only catch is that having any of the files open will block the mount; in your case, the users will have to exit X and be out of the directory before the NFS mount will work. You will, of course, lose the disc space the files occupy. > I have RTFM, but failed to find a mention of "mounting over" files. I've never seen mention of it myself, I sort of stumbled onto it when copying a file into an unmounted structure--it went into the directory, instead, and when the structure was mounted, the file vanished! -- Gary Heston System Mismanager and technoflunky uunet!sci34hub!gary or My opinions, not theirs. SCI Systems, Inc. gary@sci34hub.sci.com I support drug testing. I believe every public official should be given a shot of sodium pentathol and ask "Which laws have you broken this week?".