Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 17:30:58 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Victor Sudakov <vas@mpeks.tomsk.su> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /etc on a separate filesystem ? Message-ID: <20140904173058.aed32c96.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20140904150739.GA42707@admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru> References: <20140904150739.GA42707@admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru>
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On Thu, 4 Sep 2014 22:07:39 +0700, Victor Sudakov wrote: > Colleagues, > > Is it possible to keep /etc on a separate filesystem? It is problematic. The file /etc/fstab is used to mount the file systems, and /etc/rc controls the whole system startup. There would have to be a replacement located on / which is later on removed from /etc, so that the desired partition can be mounted instead. Probably it's possible to achieve this goal by modifying the location of files involved in the boot process before /etc can be mounted, but that would require dealing with lower-level OS internals. For example, /fstab and /rc could be used (located on /) which make /etc available and "continue from there". But it also would mean you have _two_ fstab's and rc's. But those two aren't probably the only "offenders": what about /etc/ttys, /etc/gettytab or the /etc/rc.d/ subtree? They'll also be needed. In general, the idea doesn't look much appealing. ;-) The /etc directoriy is too fundamental to early-stage OS operations that it deserves being on the / partition. Keep in mind that it traditioally even had programs in it that were required to boot the system, like /etc/mount, /etc/GETTY or /etc/fsck. It's name /etc, meaning "et cetera", initially pointed out that there were "further programs" that were considered important to the OS. Operating systems such as UNIX System III, WEGA or SunOS / early Solaris followed that concept. Later on, /etc became the place for OS configuration files, often called "editable text configuration". :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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