Advice managing home directories

[anthony baldwin]

Tod Merley wrote:
> On 9/24/06, P Jones <deerfieldtech at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 9/24/06, Andrew Robinson <awrobinson-ml at nc.rr.com> wrote:
>> > I'm looking for advice on managing my home directories on my home
>> > network. I have various flavors of mostly Fedora on various computers
>> > and sometimes on various partitions on the same computer. I'm 
>> trying to
>> > figure out the most convenient way to combine what's common between 
>> them
>> > with what's unique to each installation.
>> >
>> > It would be trivial if I could put all the common stuff in a single
>> > directory, like a "My Documents" in Windoze. I could NFS-mount from my
>> > main server and link that directory into each home directory.
>> >
>> > However, a number of applications seem to want put their configuration
>> > and data in dot directories directly in the home directory. jpilot and
>> > thunderbird are two examples. At this point I am identifying these
>> > applications and creating links. The more applications and the more
>> > installations, the more tedious and error-prone this approach becomes.
>> > Is there a better way?
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> >
>> > Andrew Robinson
>>
>> Andrew;
>>
>> I can tell you what I do with my small linux/sometimes Windows
>> network, although I can't tell from your post exactly what you're
>> trying to do with "common stuff". It sounds like you're thinking about
>> things in a Windows kind of way (no offense).
>>
>> Anyway, I have a server that I put all my home directories on and
>> share by NFS. I used to use NIS, but for the few numbers of users and
>> machines it is unnecessary (and all of my workstations run FC5). I
>> mount the home directories either using fstab entries or with
>> automount. I put a common docs directory in my home directory and
>> share it by NFS and SMB, and then link to it in each home directory. I
>> have a cron job that backs up the home directory on the server every
>> night. Since the home directries are on the server I can shut off the
>> workstations at night.
>>
>> I use SME server (a RHEL based server distribution). I make sure that
>> users on the workstations have the same UID/GIDs as on the server
>> (very important for NFS). Although using NFS on SME isn't built in, it
>> can be done effectively in small networks that don't see a whole lot
>> of change. Most importantly GIDs are the same as FC.
>>
>> But I'm still curious about your noting the location of the hidden
>> application directories in the home directory.
>>
>> -P
>>
>> -- 
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>>
This seems vaguely related to something I´m trying to do.
I´ve just (finally) successfully installed a dual-boot configuration 
with both Kubuntu and Fedora Care 5 on a 15gb hdd
on my machine.  I have a 200gb drive that I told the FC5 install to call 
/home...Now I see the error in that.
I am going to mount a /home for the FC install on the same 15gb drive, 
because I can see that both installs need their own /home
(I wanted them to share the 200gb hdd for home, but they don´t want to 
share a /home).
so, now...I want to, as I said, make new /home for the fedora 
installation on the 15gb drive, but I want to
make...hmmm.../media/stuff or something, on the 200gb drive, and keep my 
data there, and put a link to this
/media/stuff drive in BOTH /homes (both for Kubu and FC5), so that I can 
keep documents, music pics, etc.
all on the 200gb drive and access them from either installation, without 
colliding with permissions issues.
the question I have, being largely ignorant of such things (having only 
used single OS fedora systems on one drive for about 7 years,
I haven´t even dualbooted windows since, like 2000, and never used a 
master/slave drive system),
is, is this possible?  Can I just symbolically link both /home dirs to 
the other drive, and configure /etc/fstab to mount
that drive automagically on boot so that either install can access the 
data thereon?
You know, like make a /home/tony/stuff dir in each home, and mount the 
other drive in that dir...thus,
allowing each install to maintain it´s own .gaim, .mozilla, .kde, etc. 
in it´s own respective /home, but still
have access to that big bad boy 200gb for storage of all my goodies.
I have the feeling that I´m not too far out in left field on this, I 
just don´t have the practical experience with this kind
of thing to know precisely what I´m doing.  I still don´t know that if I 
write a document on OOo in the fedora install and save
it to the big drive, if upon booting Kubu I´ll still be able to open and 
edit that file, or if Kubu is going to think ¨oh, no...that file
doesn´t belong to you...it belongs to the other tony...¨
I´m not even sure how to make a new /home on the fedora install so I 
can  relabel the 200gb drive...or move what´s on the 200gb drive to 
somewhere
on the fedora install and relabel the 200gb as /media/stuff or 
whatever....I´m a little lost.  I think it´s possible, I just don´t know 
how to do it.
any advice would be deeply appreciated.

did I cluelessly hijack your thread?

tony