On 11/30/18, Roberto C. Sánchez <robe...@debian.org> wrote: > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 12:14:40PM -0500, Default User wrote: >> I often see people recommend a separate home partition. >> But why would (or not) that be better than just a home directory >> within >> the root directory? >> Wouldn't one less partition be simpler, and therefore (all other >> things >> being equal) better? >> Opinions, please. > > The main reasons for a separate home partition are to share it between > multiple installations in a multi-boot scenario and/or to allow for easy > re-installation of the OS while preserving everything under /home. > > If neither of those apply, then a separate home partition is not > especially beneficial.
Cliff's Notes Version Part I: Flaky USB connections are an important factor! An accidentally disconnected USB connection can cause data to become *unknowingly* redirected back to the original directory on the primary partition. That situation can then potentially lead to loss of e.g. downloaded data if a user is not always 100% aware of where data is actually residing at all times..... Cliff's Notes Version Part II: One Debian-User mused about binding even deeper into ~/ child directories instead of just ~/. I LIKE THAT for software configuration compatibility reasons. It's my next intended setup. :) The "so what had happened was" version: I started playing with this a few months ago. I LIKE IT primarily because I finally got brave enough to learn how to add lines to fstab to go a different, slightly more complicated mount route for computing. Because I've experienced a deal-breaking software configuration compatibility problem, the one thing I'm always hesitant about is that *once in a while* there might be that compatibility issue with software package user config files under /home/user (~/). Browsers are where I experienced that episode. When I tried to step back down after an upgrade didn't work, what a mess! That became my firsthand experience in deleting those *not hidden* (grin) "dot files" under /home/user. It could overwhelming super quick if that same incompatibility began occurring across all the various distros a user might have ready to boot up at any second. An important aside is that one HAS to know what's saved in those config files if deleting them becomes necessary. Sometimes there are bookmarks and other suchly important information. I get around that point by renaming instead of deleting. I use last date used as a cull-friendly milestone marker when renaming important directories. With respect to separate home partitions, one Debian-User recently mentioned that they avoid the software configuration compatibility issue by further breaking their setup down. They have things like ~/Documents and ~/Downloads each shared via a separate partition (or similar) instead of only the whole ~/ directory.. I LIKE that thought process. It's what I'll be attempting* with mine the next time I feel like messing with it. Having lately been successfully "mount -B" ing my /var/cache/apt/archives hoard, I can now easily see having those (~/Documents, ~/Downloads, et al) each remaining as their own separate directories on a secondary partition. Fstab would then be asked to step-by-step put each of them to work as a singular entry connected up at each reboot... OR NOT.... But I'm leaning super heavy toward trying that route soon just because the test run with my archive stash has been working so well to date. :) Oh, wait, EXCEPT THAT there is one serious CAVEAT that comes to mind. Having something like ~/ on a secondary partition is a notable "not so much" if the secondary partition is connected via an unstable USB connection. Unstable USB connections complicate things super quick. It would be easy to start losing data if a user is not self-educated in how to recognize where their data is actually residing in their system. What can happen is that a flaky USB connection will close, but you could still be saving data to the /home/user directory under /. WHEN A FLAKY USB CONNECTION FAILS, WHAT HAPPENS IS: Your mind will be thinking you're safely saving important data under /dev/sdh6/home (your secondary partition) when instead a closed USB connection means that data goes back directly under /dev/sda2/home (i.e. your primary partition). SOMETIMES YOU GET LUCKY and your system will complain that a mounted directory is suddenly missing, but you do NOT always get that lucky. Where that can be detrimental is if you a-sumed all had always stayed connected and thus worked as planned and so you go off and delete an entire operating system to get set up for a shiny new install. What you will have done is you will have innocently deleted all e.g. recently downloaded data that had accidentally been redirected back directly into /home/user. I avoid that disaster by always one last time manually verifying what's left sitting in /home, /media, /mnt, AND some various personal /var/* directories. As another aside, I've more than a few times caught and rescued rsync backup whoopsies that ended up saved as hard data under /mnt and /media. Check, check, and double-check then check one more last time because things do not always work as intended.. :) Cindy :) -- Cindy-Sue Causey Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * runs with duct tape *
