A bit perplexed...

[Paul F. Almquist]

On Wednesday 09 February 2005 18:53, Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Here's something I've had a bit of a problem figuring out.
>
> When someone says the "root filesystem", I automatically think of / and
> everything installed on it (/root, /usr, /etc, /var and so on, excluding
> of course /boot and swap) in one partition.
>
> I usually setup my systems like so:
>
> /boot /dev/sdXX
> /root /dev/sdXX
> /usr  /dev/sdXX
> /etc  /dev/sdXX
> /var  /dev/sdXX
> /home /dev/sdXX
> /tmp  /dev/sdXX
>
> Or better yet, use LVM.
>
> In this scenario, what would the root filesystem be?  Everything else
> that doesn't have it's own partition? Does it still refer
> to /usr, /etc, /var etc., even though they reside on their own
> partitions (I'm thinking it's this last one)?
>
> If you're wondering why I'm asking, I've been considering trying out
> OpenSSI on Fedora Core 2. One of OpenSSI's neat features is it's ability
> to have root filesystem failover.  If the root node goes down, another
> one can take over as long as that node has been setup to use the shared
> root filesystem (it has to be installed on some type of network
> storage).
>
> I've just been wondering what happens if the root filesystem is spread
> across several partitions, which led me to confusing myself about what
> "root filesystem" actually means.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ranbir
> --
> Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu
> Systems Aligned Inc.
> www.systemsaligned.com

the root file system contains all of the components necessary to get the 
system operational, the startup scripts and the programs they call and the 
configuration data, i.e., /bin, /etc, /sbin, /lib, /dev and the mount points 
for files systems used at run time e.g., /usr, /opt, /home, /var, things that 
may be in other partitions either local or NFS mounted.  /root is root's home 
directory and really is not needed during the startup process. 

the root file system is sometimes confused with /, the root directory, and 
the / or root partition which may actually contain everything (except swap).

paul

-- 
Paul F. Almquist
paul at almquist.name
Eau Claire, WI  USA