Experiences with FreeBSD 9.0-BETA2

[Thomas Mueller]

>From Brett Glass <brett at lariat.net>:

> Unfortunately, due to past history, /usr is mixed-use. It normally
> contains both configuration information -- e.g. /usr/local/etc --
> and more volatile data such as users' home directories. This
> prevents /usr/local/etc, which also contains mission-critical
> configuration information, from being protected if you just protect
> /. Some proprietary Unices have fixed this historical flaw in the
> traditional hierarchy by moving /usr/local/etc to another location
> and them symlinking it back to where seasoned administrators expect
> it to be, thus honoring POLA. The three open source, old school
> BSDs (Free, Net, Open) have not done this to date, but it's
> something that should be considered in the long run. It would
> certainly make the creation of embedded systems easier, as well as
> enhancing security in multi-user systems!

You mean users' home directories are under /usr/home rather than /home?

I believe /home is more traditional, and decidedly my preference: good to put on a separate partition so it won't be touched by a system upgrade.

Tom