Re: Support for merged-/usr now in debootstrap; default for stretch?
On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 16:50:13 +0200, Pierre Chifflier wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 02:38:09PM +0000, Felipe Sateler wrote:
>> On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 22:36:58 +0200, Ansgar Burchardt wrote:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > debootstrap in unstable can now install with merged-/usr, that is
>> > with /bin, /sbin, /lib* being symlinks to their counterpart in /usr.
>> > Run
>> >
>> > debootstrap --merged-usr testing .../testing
>> > http://deb.debian.org/debian
>> >
>> > to give it a try.
>> >
>> > It has been previously suggested to make this the default for (at
>> > least)
>> > new installations. I think Russ' earlier mail[1] explains quite well
>> > why the "split" between / and /usr doesn't really work out for Debian
>> > these days and that trying to maintain it for some configurations
>> > (which are not documented) is mostly busy-work. There is also a nice
>> > article on LWN[2] summarizing earlier discussions.
>> >
>> > I found these arguments convincing enough and would like to see the
>> > default switched to merged-/usr for Stretch and later. Possibly also
>> > switching systems on upgrade to the new scheme (not necessarily
>> > already in the Stretch release cycle).
>>
>> I agree that merging /usr is a good thing to do. We should default to
>> that, and at some point force the merge somehow (via the usrmerge
>> package?
>> ). Ideally, stretch systems that are fresh-installed should have the
>> same configuration as stretch-upgraded systems, otherwise confusion
>> will ensue.
>>
>>
> Hi,
>
> Except that breaks having different mount points, which is useful to
> enforce different mount options (my /usr is nodev,ro).
You seem to misunderstand. The proposal is to move everything from /bin, /
sbin, /lib{,64,32,...} into /usr/$dir. It does not prevent having /usr in
a separate partition.
Please see the references in Ansgar's original mail.
> Does this mean this cannot be supported anymore ? It would be a step
> backward, security-speaking, if split /usr does not work at all.
Split /usr is still supported, but it has to be mounted by the initramfs.
All initramfs providers in debian do so for stretch. Even more, having a
split /usr that is not mounted by the initramfs is not supported:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830829
--
Saludos,
Felipe Sateler
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