Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 01:59:26 -0400 From: Joel Ray Holveck <joelh@gnu.ai.mit.edu> To: terry@lambert.org Cc: gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG, terry@lambert.org, jmb@freefall.freebsd.org, tom@sdf.com, jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com, root@friday.keanesea.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What is the best way to setup a drive Message-ID: <199607040559.BAA14799@kropotkin.gnu.ai.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <199607040504.WAA12377@phaeton.artisoft.com> (message from Terry Lambert on Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:04:14 -0700 (MST))
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>>> 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. I had been responding to the symlink idea that jmb proposed. Is there any problem with symlinking /etc/passwd to something on a r/w filesystem instead of dealing with NIS, to deal with pre-yp programs that don't think to call getpwent()? I suppose that the /etc/ptmp lockfile would have to be dealt with accordingly in that event, but there should be ways to handle that. Where are the perms for /dev/tty* stored? > 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). Hmmm... We may also want to change paths.h (and src/sbin/nologin/nologin.5; why is it in that directory instead of shutdown or login?) to take care of /etc/nologin, although shutdown will work fine without changing it. (Just be sure to remove it manually your first attempt to boot with / r/o!) Should the comment from /etc/rc concern us?: "root must be read/write both for NFS diskless and for VFS LKMs before proceeding any further." > 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. Who said there's a problem? I can't fix the programs at the current time (no net connection on my test machine, forgot to pay the phone bill), so I'm just pointing 'em out. I'm new at this; what design documents are you referring to? -- http://www.wp.com/piquan --- Joel Ray Holveck --- joelh@gnu.ai.mit.edu Fourth law of computing: Anything that can go wro .signature: segmentation violation -- core dumped
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