why separate filesystems?

[Geoffrey Kimbrough]

In article <377 at icjapan.uucp> Jim Gottlieb <jimmy at denwa.info.com> writes:
>Could anyone share reasons why or why not to have a separate /usr
>(/usr2, ...)?

	The reasons for / and /usr being separate are largely historical,
and have more to do with the size of pdp11 diskpacks than anything else.
The best reason to keep filesystems small is that it makes restoring single 
files from tape easier.  (Of course, if you run Norton Utilities...8^))

Backups are the real reason now.  my / and /usr (actually, I don't use
a separate /usr, anyway...) my /rootuser filesystem seldom changes much,
and usually contains only packaged, installed software.  I don't need to
backup that stuff very often.  (how many backups of /bin/sh do you need? Yes,
I know about incremental backups, but if a filesystem doesn't change much,
you end up with a lot of nearly empty disks or tapes)
My other filesystems are much more active, and get backed up as appropriate.

The other main reason is that
filesystem damage can only affect 1 filesystem at a time.

-- 
Geoffrey Kimbrough -- Senior System Therapist
INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation -- A Kodak Company
I think machines and clocks have secret motives, but then again...
Maybe they're made that way.