Re: Q: Diskless Workstations (Sarge)

[vagrant@freegeek.org]

On Thu, Mar 01, 2007 at 07:22:06PM +0100, C. Gatzemeier wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, 1. März 2007 07:34 schrieb vagrant@freegeek.org:
> > ... say a binary in /usr is dependent
> > on a particular version of a library in /lib ...
> 
> Hmm, I am not using this type of setup, but I allways thought most libraries 
> other than basic system libraries live in /usr/lib.
> (all the stuff that has /usr as its install path)

sure... but some of the ones in /lib are used by almost everything,
directly or indirectly... like libc6
 
> And thought I once read one of the beauty of the FS hirarchy is that you can 
> do just this type of /usr mounting.

yes, you can do it, but it comes with some consequences... 

things like "dpkg -l" will no longer have any real clue whats actually
installed, as your /usr is no longer maintained by dpkg (which keeps its
package database files in /var). which means you can't really use
apt-get anymore- you have to manually resolve package dependencies...

so, essentially, you still need to keep your package lists in sync on
all machines, at which point, what are you really gaining by splitting
off /usr onto a shared filesystem?

> Looking into /lib I don't find much libs looking relevant for apps, I would 
> try it, if I where setting up diskless workstations.

many applications do depend on libc6, which resides in /lib. if there
were a versioned dependency on libc6, it wouldn't properly be dealt with
if you maintain /usr separately from the rest of your system.

i am done with this. if you insist on using this approach, don't say i
didn't warn you. :P

live well,
  vagrant