Stupid question about mountpoints and fstab

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Odhiambo Washington wrote:

>Hello people,
>
>I have never figured out something like this can be done, but today I 
>see it. We have purchased s co-lo server. They have installed it and
>given me access to "do whatever you want with the box", but their
>fstab has left me thirsty, wanting to know what's going on ...
>
>
>sp2817a# less /etc/fstab
># Device                Mountpoint      FStype  Options         Dump    Pass#
>/dev/ad0s1g             /home           ufs     rw              2       2
>/dev/ad0s2              /home           ufs     rw              2       2
>  
>
>sp2817a# df -h
>Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
>/dev/ad0s1g     15G     22K     13G     0%    /home
>/dev/ad0s2      72G     22K     66G     0%    /home
>
>
>Now, if someone can explain to me what the hell is being done with
>/home in this server... ;)
>  
>
In short, IMHO, they've cocked it up!

It's quite possible to mount two different (or even the same) disk 
partitions on the same mountpoint.  It would certainly be a valid thing 
to do if the union flag were specified.  Otherwise, I strongly suspect 
that only the last disk mounted will be written to, but you could create 
a file under /home and see what grows with df.

I suggest pointing  ad0s1g at /home2 (which you'll have to create) then 
umount /home twice, then mount /home and /home2.  Or, instead of /home2 
perhaps /usr/local, but you'd have to go via a temporary mountpoint and 
copy existing /usr/local to it.

Finally (or do nothing but) complain!

I've seen worse.  The last (Linux) colo we got, had 60+Gb for /var and 
5Gb for /home - completely backwards!

--Alex