[arch-projects] [mkinitcpio] mounting /usr from the initrd

[Dave Reisner]

On Tue, Aug 02, 2011 at 05:40:06PM +0200, Thomas Bächler wrote:
> Am 02.08.2011 17:10, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
> > This website created by the systemd folks sums it up nicely (just
> > replace "systemd" with "initscripts" everywhere):
> > <http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken>.
> 
> Heh, doesn't the "separate-usr-is-broken" in the URL say it all? (Didn't
> read it yet, will have to soon.)
> 
> > The solution they propose, and which I agree with, is to mount /usr
> > from the initrd just as we mount / (an alternative solution is to just
> > declare separate /usr as not supported, but I guess that would not
> > make us popular).
> > 
> > Before working up a patch, I wanted to hear if there are any
> > objections to this approach, and in particular that Thomas agrees that
> > it is the right way to go.
> 
> The purpose of the initrd is to do as few things as possible to get to
> the "real" system. If we can support a system that gets to the point of
> mounting /usr without needing things from /usr, we do it. If we can't
> support it, there is no point in ugly workarounds - if it's broken by
> design, don't do it.
> 
> I won't accept any patch that modifies the mkinitcpio core to support
> this. I might consider a patch that does this in a hook and thus keeps
> things modular, if you think it is necessary. For example, write a hook
> that adds a new mount handler:
> 
> run_hook() {
>  mount_handler=usr_mount_handler
> }
> 
> usr_mount_handler() {
>  # mount /
>  default_mount_handler "$@"
>  # mount /usr
>  [ add code here to mount /usr ]
> }
> 

I like this a lot more than any of my other ideas...

d