From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 16 14:00:59 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1A18106564A for ; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:00:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bernard@dugas-family.org) Received: from smtp11.ispronet.com (smtp11.ispronet.com [81.28.196.233]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 710008FC28 for ; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:00:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bernard@dugas-family.org) Received: from localhost (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by smtp11.ispronet.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAEB8B846; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:57 +0100 (CET) Received: from smtp11.ispronet.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp11.ispronet.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 37095-03; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:48 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.1.59] (unknown [81.28.194.61]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp11.ispronet.com (Postfix) with ESMTP; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:48 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <4947B50B.7010802@dugas-family.org> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:02:51 +0100 From: Bernard Dugas User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; fr-FR; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616 X-Accept-Language: fr,en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Wojciech Puchar References: <20081216094719.EDCEE1065675@hub.freebsd.org> <49478749.2030200@dugas-family.org> <20081216123057.M61117@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> In-Reply-To: <20081216123057.M61117@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ispronet.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Optimising pxeboot disk size X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:00:59 -0000 Wojciech Puchar wrote: > i already did such things but with NetBSD 1.5 for my Xterminal distro. > > it's simple: More simple when you tell it ;-) Thanks a lot, i will try it tonight ! > I wish it's helpful, doing this doesn't just save space but saves time - > you have to upgrade software once. So preserving consistency, which is the most important when you have lot of diskless stations ! > you may like to make /etc-common directory and put most of files there, > and symlinks in each station's /etc In fact, it makes me think that we miss a concept in mount, or at least i don't know it currently : imagine a -tl (TransparentLayer) option for mount, allowing to mount multiple source to the same directory, for instance /etc : mount -r yournfsserver:/basic/etc /etc mount -tl -r yournfsserver:/TypeX/etc /etc mount -tl -r yournfsserver:/StationY/etc /etc A file is first look for in yournfsserver:/StationY/etc, then in yournfsserver:/TypeX/etc and finally in yournfsserver:/basic/etc. This means that StationX will see in its /etc firts its specific files, then the files dedicated to TypeX station (webserver, dns server, workstation,...) and then all basic files unchanged from standard distribution. When you want to change something, you add a rw TransparentLayer : mount -tl yournfsserver:/StationYchanges/etc /etc So that changed or added files are only stored in this rw partition, thus very small and easy to manage. This would be a kind of partition inheritance, like in object languages... Dreams are allowed :-) Thanks a lot, Best regards, -- Bernard DUGAS Mobile +33 615 333 770