[Leaplist] Remote paths/storage, automounter, layout/considerations -- WAS: Scanner Setup Help?

[Bryan J. Smith]

Jason Boxman wrote:
> Also not entirely comfortable running /home on NFS under Linux.

You don't have to run all of /home, just consider parts of it.
You can also automount portions of /home or magically mount using
the default /net in many distros.

I typically setup subdomain-specific auto.home and auto.other maps
in my LDAP tables and mount using ...  

  /export/(server)/(resource) -> /home/(domain)/(resource)  

Since I've operated as 100% portable since 2005 (and totally gave
up on desktops in late 2007 since mobile GPUs are within 50-70%
of top, single card performance), I have to run local.  But that
doesn't mean I don't still use the automounter, including for
bind mounts.

  /export/local/(resource)    -> /home/local/(resource)
                             *AND*  
  /export/(server)/(resource) -> /home/(domain)/(resource)

I don't like any storage to exist under /home, even if it's local.
It's under /export and automounted (via bind or NFS).  I like to
keep my filesystem location as transparent as possible, although
users (including myself and my wife) know that /home/local is always
local and /home/domain is a resource that may not be.

In home directories, I use "~/worksync" for portables and run
regular rsync jobs to sync to the "~/worksync" in the user's home
directory.  There is also a separate "~/work" as well.  On desktops,
it is in the /home/(domain)/(username) mount.  For portables, it
is a symlink to the local "~/worksync" (which gets sync'd).

Kevin Korb wrote:  
> I have always run /home on NFS under Linux.  From the minute I
> had more than one Linux system back in ~1995.  I can't imagine
> having to deal with having a different home directory on each
> computer.

Agreed, although in the case of portables, there are two (2) in
my setup -- one local and one that is automounted, and ~/worksync
is rsync'd between the two.

Jason Boxman wrote:  
> There's nothing in my /home directory I need on any other system.

Until you lose your primary system.  ;)

Jason Boxman wrote:  
> Every box is Debian GNU/Linux Lenny.  They're all using the
> default bash.  They all behave the same way.
> I've never messed with my shell environment.  Never needed to.
> If I did, I'd probably just push / pull it from a git repo anyway.

Now you're talking more centralized configuration management.  But
that's typically only done for system-wide CM.  User-specific
configuration is in home directories.

I guess you could have user-specific files in a CM repo.  I use
Trac+Subversion for document storage for my wife and I.  But I'm
not storing my whole home directory, all desktop preferences,
mail reader configuration, application configurations, etc...
in a CM repo.  I could easily spend hours setting up various
photo-related programs.

Then there are my save games for countless games under Linux.
(yes, I travel a lot, 3-4 hours on a flight gets boring, games
help, especially with a GeForce Go 9800GTS under the hood ;)

> No need for NFS.

It's really not about NFS, and NFS is not the only option, but
about transparent usage of your home directory.  I'm not re-
creating my settings on each and every system.  I have to use
rsync very carefully on my portables.

-- 
Bryan J Smith          Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
--------------------------------------------------------
I don't have a "favorite Linux distro."  I use, develop
and support community efforts, often built around Linux.
Technology and solutions are my focus, not dragging in
assumptions, marketing and other concepts which dominate
non-community developed software, which I left long ago.


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