From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 18 11:24:09 2012 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 26C64106566C for ; Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:24:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:3cd3:cd67:fafa:3d78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95F7D8FC1E for ; Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:24:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:fa1e:dfff:feda:c0bb]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q1IBNuNg043854 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:23:56 GMT (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: OpenDKIM Filter v2.4.3 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk q1IBNuNg043854 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1329564236; bh=hZAdRpjs8Nln7m4TfekK7/V3RYtEKB0lsrlyyY9oXPI=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:MIME-Version:To:Subject:References: In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Cc; b=OGAFVZzSqwTWMzOz59cExhdzAOuuC/s15HrmQDdXSP6ERG8AuN50fxKEDbOyt9yOD UkKHDaoSiZh/TcbZ/EOLDeIRcNbhoVleg8IggX2yaELmg2grqaNGOHOpbmzCg9rPCs oxYmfupwkXkccXX1YTvMVuEa3jaAUcF23X5VqVnQ= Message-ID: <4F3F8A46.1090908@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:23:50 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120216 Thunderbird/10.0.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4F3ECF23.5000706@fisglobal.com> <20120217234623.cf7e169c.freebsd@edvax.de> <3D08D03C85ACFBB1ABCDC5DA@mac-pro.magehandbook.com> <20120218112252.772c878b.freebsd@edvax.de> <4F3F80FD.8070201@herveybayaustralia.com.au> In-Reply-To: <4F3F80FD.8070201@herveybayaustralia.com.au> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.3.5 OpenPGP: id=60AE908C Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig3D25DA7FCE44BFC8B75860CA" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.3 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.7 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU autolearn=ham version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: /usr/home vs /home 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: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:24:09 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig3D25DA7FCE44BFC8B75860CA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 18/02/2012 10:44, Da Rock wrote: > I have yet to try ZFS (lack of resources really), but when I can I will= > setup a SAN and it will be interesting to see how this works and I > probably will use a single partition. But for the general filesystem I > doubt a single partition will cut it (I could be a stick in the mud > though :) ), and I highly recommend this path for the new user; > especially using a desktop. Your statement here makes some assumptions about the way ZFS works which aren't the case. ZFS doesn't have partitions in the sense of areas of disk space reserved for a particular filesystem. It has two concepts: the zpool and the zfs. The zpool is about the collection of hardware used to provide the disk space. This incorporates all of the ideas about mirroring or RAIDZx or log devices of various types or spare drives. (Essentially what you'ld otherwise get from a very expensive raid controller.) The zfs is a chunk of filesystem namespace designated for a specific purpose. You can use a zfs as a raw partition, but it is very much more common for it to be used as a filesystem. zfses look quite a lot like partitions, but they are really quite fundamentally different. The basic storage unit used by ZFS is a 128kB block. The blocks used by a particular zfs can appear anywhere on the zpool, and unless the ZFS has been administratively limited to a particular size, the free space available to the zfs is exactly the free space available on the entire zpool. Looked at that way, you can see it as essentially one big partition spanning the entire zpool. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig3D25DA7FCE44BFC8B75860CA Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk8/ikwACgkQ8Mjk52CukIwazgCbBE76TpgH07CVtB1eD4WmUESq Pd0An0Gfi+AOUs5VyKkjQ10H0aB0hOcV =K7yC -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig3D25DA7FCE44BFC8B75860CA--