dfox wrote:
>
> > *click* Ahh, now it all makes sense. If I'm understanding you and Randy
> > correctly, there's always a folder within / called usr. If I wish, I can
> > mount a partition as /usr and that hides the contents of the 'real' usr
>
> Essentially. But /usr is there, at least if the directory entry for
> it is created. The 'hiding' isn't really an intention, but it's a
> side effect. If you have your normal usr on another partition, then you
> have just a directory entry 'usr' on that partition. Once it's mounted
> at /usr, tnen the previously (usually) empty directory gets 'replaced'
> with what's at the mount point. The idea is not necessarily to hade
> any existing contents in /usr, but of course if you were to stuff a
> few files in there, and then mounted a partition at /usr, and then
> unmounted it - guess what -- :) your original contents at /usr would
> still be there.
>
> Another example -- most people put /home on a separate partition. As
> an example, my physical partition /dev/hdb1 is just a filesystem with
> a couple of entries (dfox root and others) in it. /hone is not there.
> But /home is a directory entry on the / partition. Without that partition
> mounted, I would not be albe to go to my home directory (/home/dfox) because
> /home contains no files (and thus no directory 'dfox'). But if I take
> that partition and put it at /home by mounting it, then (voila) I get
> /home/dfox, /home/root, /home/ftp and the others.
>
> And if I had a partition with /home in it, I'd end up with /home/home/dfox,
> which is obviously not what is needed :).
>
> By extension, '/' (the root) doesn't really exist, then. I have a
> partition that contains directories such as bin, usr, etc, var
> perhaps, lib, and so forth, and I mount that on /, and I get /bin,
> /usr, /lib, and so forth. / isn't physically at least, a partition.
>
Damn, that lot made my head spin... I will read it again in the morning.
I thought that during initializing if a partition didn't exist (i.e.
/home), it creates it as a directory. If it does exist, it gets treated
like a directory. If a partition fits inside a directory (i.e. /home/http)
it creates the directory /home and just points the pointer for /http to the
partition.
Michael
--
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get it back in.
-- H.R. Haldeman
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