On Fri 30 Nov 2018 at 12:23:11 (-0500), Roberto C. Sánchez 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.
I would agree with that; all my systems are multiboot for periods of time (after new Debian releases), usually with consecutive releases, as I flip back and forth between two root filesystems. But another reason for a separate home partition is that I encrypt it in case the computer is lost or stolen. I don't feel that the methods available for encrypting the entire system are routine enough to bother with presently. Cheers, David.
