[geeks] Thoughts on bash for root

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002, Greg A. Woods wrote:

> Oh how wrong you are!  ;-)

Okay, let's look at two systems.  One of which has /usr as a separate
parition.  One doesn't.

Now, fill the /usr partitions on both systems.  This happens all the time
due to patching, poor planning, upgrading applications, whatever.  It's
not a good idea to do intentionally, and the situation is normally
resolved quickly, but it does happen.

Now, modify some critical file in /etc on both systems.

Voila!  One system is now useless!  And, if the file contains significant
system state (say, /etc/shadow), you lose data in the process.  Had I
placed / and /usr on separate partitions, I wouldn't have had the
opportunity to hone my emergency data-recovery skills and test my most
recent backups.

One more thing:  If / and /usr are separate partitions, you can't mount
/usr as read-only.

> Do you have any idea at all why there is a /usr in the first place?

I'm sure that any answer I have you will gleefully tell me is incorrect.
So, I'll pretend I don't know and save myself the time that would be
invested in typing the answer.  Please note that this is also not an open
invitation for a lecture.

--Jonathan