From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jul 3 22:06:15 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id WAA29542 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:06:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id WAA29534; Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:06:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id WAA12377; Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:04:15 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199607040504.WAA12377@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: What is the best way to setup a drive To: gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG (Gary Palmer) Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:04:14 -0700 (MST) Cc: terry@lambert.org, joelh@gnu.ai.mit.edu, jmb@freefall.freebsd.org, tom@sdf.com, jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com, root@friday.keanesea.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <12468.836455255@palmer.demon.co.uk> from "Gary Palmer" at Jul 4, 96 05:40:55 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > The "/etc" directory is not allowed to be other than on the root file > > system, by definition. That resolves the symlink problem. > > Umm? What was being talked about (if you remember) was having a > read-only root filesystem. Then someone pointed out that that'd stop > you changing passwords, so then a symlink from /etc to a read-write FS > was suggested ... Which makes me wonder where your FS ``improvements'' > fit in? They don't solve the problem of how to figure out where to get > the /etc directory from. I thought that was clear. That /etc has to be writeable is a bogus assumption. The NIS suggestion for "where do I get my passwords from" frees up /etc/passwd. What's left is /etc/fstab (dealt with by mount changes, which aren't the same thing as FS changes), /etc/rc* (bogus) and /etc/sysconfig (also bogus). I really don't see where the problem is: throw out your bogositieis and fix the rest to comply with the design documents, and the problems all fade away. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.