Newbie: Correct directory for file server

[Tom Munro Glass]

> Hi Tom- /usr doesn't _have_ to be mounted read-only, but it's not
> uncommon to do it on systems connected to the net/susceptible to
> hacking/just for security.  Default Sun for home is /export home,
> primarily b/c Solaris thinks it's always the NFS server ;-)  Most Linux
> distros use /home, and I'll admit I'm not positive what freeBSD uses as
> a default, but I expect it to be /home and again, NOT under the /usr
> tree- home directories contain dynamic, changing data.  The /usr
> filesystem remains static aside from the occasional app that 'must' be
> installed into /usr/local, or adding vendor packages (think base
> packages or ports installed for freeBSD), which once it's set up for a
> production system, may actually stay static for years in some cases
> (with the possible exception of security fixes depending on the
> environment).  Again, mounting the home dir as /usr/home would preclude
> you from ever even considering mounting /usr as read-only (or
> 'immutable' is I _think_ the other  freeBSD option?)
>
> So, not sure why your system is set up the way it is, but fairly likely
> it was done that way because of mis-judging disk space requirements, or
> the way the drive(s) were partitioned... you can always create a new
> home dir and copy it over via:
> rm -f /home (removes symlink)
> mkdir /home
> cd /usr/home
> tar cvf - . | (cd /home && tar xvf - )
>
> Scott
>

Thanks again Scott. I understand what you're saying about /usr being for 
mainly static data and this stacks up with what I've read about Linux and 
FreeBSD. So I was very surprised when I installed 4.9-RELEASE on a brand new 
machine (completely blank disks) and it made /home as a symlink to /usr/home! 
But this seems to be the default for FreeBSD.

I'm half way through creating new filesystems for 'home' and 'export' and 
copying the data across (thanks for the tar tip) and I just have to decide 
where to mount them.

Chris Howells suggests mounting the 'home' filesystem at /usr/home and I think 
he is suggesting that 'export' would mount at /usr/home/export. This 
contradicts what you have said above so I'm confused!

Chris/Scott - I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Tom