After long resisting the idea, I hope to switch from ext4 to btrfs for my next installation, Leap 15.3. The openSUSE norm is btrfs for / and xfs for /home, each in separate partitions, right? But, in contrast as I understand it, it seems Fedora’s default is for a single btrfs partition for both. Why the difference? That is, why a separate /home in Leap? And why xfs rather than btrfs anyway? And a supplementary question. What are the implications if I wanted to use additional data partition(s) besides /home? Should they be in btrfs? Or xfs? Or doesn’t it matter? -- Robin K Wellington "Harbour City" New Zealand
On 31/05/2021 12.07, Robin Klitscher wrote:
After long resisting the idea, I hope to switch from ext4 to btrfs for my next installation, Leap 15.3.
The openSUSE norm is btrfs for / and xfs for /home, each in separate partitions, right? But, in contrast as I understand it, it seems Fedora’s default is for a single btrfs partition for both.
Why the difference? That is, why a separate /home in Leap? And why xfs rather than btrfs anyway?
xfs is a good choice, and system snapshots on /home is not clearly a good idea. You could have free space problems, for instance. Too many variables, I think.
And a supplementary question. What are the implications if I wanted to use additional data partition(s) besides /home? Should they be in btrfs? Or xfs? Or doesn’t it matter?
Doesn't matter. That is, the implications are the same as have always been, it is up to you. The only partition that has implications is "/", that openSUSE prefers btrfs and has advantages like snapshots. Me, for instance, do not use btrfs on root, but I use it for backup because it has compression. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
AFAIK, openSUSE no longer recommends separate partitions by default... at least not on Tumbleweed.
On Mon, 31 May 2021 22:07:35 +1200 Robin Klitscher <robin.klitscher@gmail.com> wrote:
After long resisting the idea, I hope to switch from ext4 to btrfs for my next installation, Leap 15.3.
The openSUSE norm is btrfs for / and xfs for /home, each in separate partitions, right? But, in contrast as I understand it, it seems Fedora’s default is for a single btrfs partition for both.
Why the difference? That is, why a separate /home in Leap? And why xfs rather than btrfs anyway?
Personally, I don't think it's important or even necessary to have a separate /home. What I believe is important is to have all of your data under your home directory in a different filesystem. So my home directory /home/dhoworth is in one filesystem, whilst all my documens for example are in /home/dhoworth/Documents/ and that is in a different filesystem. There is a symbolic link from my home directory Documents -> /another-filesystem/Documents and so on for all my directories. The point is that when I upgrade my system, or run another operating system, all my data is available but is completely safe from whatever the upgrade does.
And a supplementary question. What are the implications if I wanted to use additional data partition(s) besides /home? Should they be in btrfs? Or xfs? Or doesn’t it matter?
Am 31.05.21 um 15:51 schrieb Dave Howorth:
On Mon, 31 May 2021 22:07:35 +1200 Robin Klitscher <robin.klitscher@gmail.com> wrote: ...
Why the difference? That is, why a separate /home in Leap? And why xfs rather than btrfs anyway?
Personally, I don't think it's important or even necessary to have a separate /home. What I believe is important is to have all of your data under your home directory in a different filesystem. So my home directory /home/dhoworth is in one filesystem, whilst all my documens for example are in /home/dhoworth/Documents/ and that is in a different filesystem. There is a symbolic link from my home directory Documents -> /another-filesystem/Documents and so on for all my directories. The point is that when I upgrade my system, or run another operating system, all my data is available but is completely safe from whatever the upgrade does.
I prefer a separate /home partition, because when upgrading /home is really physically separated. With different partitions /home can be kept small, here 3GB of 10GB, while /home/data is about 2TB. Backup is simpler, too. Peter
openSUSE will never touch your home directory during upgrades. A home directory is not usable between multiple installs due to program version differences A dotfile manager is very easy to use. The use cases for having a separate home partition don't really make sense when you look at the alternatives and how much nicer they are to use.
On 31/05/2021 22.51, Sy retia wrote:
openSUSE will never touch your home directory during upgrades.
Notice that many people say upgrade, but what they do is install fresh, keeping intact the /home partition and formatting the "/" partition.
A home directory is not usable between multiple installs due to program
version differences Not really true. My /home directory has been reused all the way since 1999 :-D Searching, I have config files dating back to 2006 in my home. Data files, I have some going back to 1999 in my Documents directory. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
On Mon, 31 May 2021 20:51:09 -0000 "Sy retia" <simonizor@protonmail.com> wrote:
openSUSE will never touch your home directory during upgrades.
So if the upgrade includes a new version of some program that uses a different version of a configuration file in your hopme directory, the upgrade will install the new program and leave it broken with the old config? That doesn't sound very helpful, so have I understood you correctly?
A home directory is not usable between multiple installs due to program version differences
As Carlos points out, it can be and it is regularly done, particularly if you organize your directories as I suggested.
A dotfile manager is very easy to use.
What is a dotfile manager?
The use cases for having a separate home partition don't really make sense when you look at the alternatives and how much nicer they are to use.
They make sense to me. YMMV :P PS You don't say what you consider the alternatives to be?
On 01/06/2021 12.26, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Mon, 31 May 2021 20:51:09 -0000 "Sy retia" <simonizor@protonmail.com> wrote:
openSUSE will never touch your home directory during upgrades.
So if the upgrade includes a new version of some program that uses a different version of a configuration file in your hopme directory, the upgrade will install the new program and leave it broken with the old config? That doesn't sound very helpful, so have I understood you correctly?
That is so. It is up to each program to detect stale configurations and migrate or reset them. The upgrade can only handle system configuration files, not home configuration files. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
On 01/06/2021 01:51, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Mon, 31 May 2021 22:07:35 +1200 Robin Klitscher <robin.klitscher@gmail.com> wrote:
After long resisting the idea, I hope to switch from ext4 to btrfs for my next installation, Leap 15.3.
The openSUSE norm is btrfs for / and xfs for /home, each in separate partitions, right? But, in contrast as I understand it, it seems Fedora’s default is for a single btrfs partition for both.
Why the difference? That is, why a separate /home in Leap? And why xfs rather than btrfs anyway?
Personally, I don't think it's important or even necessary to have a separate /home. What I believe is important is to have all of your data under your home directory in a different filesystem. So my home directory /home/dhoworth is in one filesystem, whilst all my documens for example are in /home/dhoworth/Documents/ and that is in a different filesystem. There is a symbolic link from my home directory Documents -> /another-filesystem/Documents and so on for all my directories. The point is that when I upgrade my system, or run another operating system, all my data is available but is completely safe from whatever the upgrade does.
Thank you. That's very useful. It was for fear of a corrupted filesystem that I set up with more than one data partition > 20 years ago, and have stuck with the arrangement ever since. And the caution paid off six months ago when, for reasons undetermined, I did end up with a failed filesystem. But it was only the one, which I was able to recover from backup, while the others remained intact. -- Robin K Wellington "Harbour City" New Zealand
participants (5)
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Carlos E. R. -
Dave Howorth -
Peter McD -
Robin Klitscher -
Sy retia