From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 16 22:00:53 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 399C2106564A for ; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:00:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rock_on_the_web@comcen.com.au) Received: from mail.unitedinsong.com.au (202-172-126-254.cpe.qld-1.comcen.com.au [202.172.126.254]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E09C18FC1B for ; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:00:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rock_on_the_web@comcen.com.au) Received: from [192.168.0.199] (unknown [192.168.0.199]) by mail.unitedinsong.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD4D1425C for ; Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:01:33 +1000 (EST) From: Da Rock To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <4947B50B.7010802@dugas-family.org> References: <20081216094719.EDCEE1065675@hub.freebsd.org> <49478749.2030200@dugas-family.org> <20081216123057.M61117@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <4947B50B.7010802@dugas-family.org> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:00:45 +1000 Message-Id: <1229464846.1266.14.camel@laptop2.herveybayaustralia.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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 22:00:53 -0000 On Tue, 2008-12-16 at 15:02 +0100, Bernard Dugas wrote: > 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 :-) Apparently that sort of thing is available on plan9 OS. Everything is a file so you can mount remote and local devices- plus merge them in a single directory. Check it out on wikipedia... Dreams can come true! :)