[SOLVED] Just got my Arch! Can /home be moved to different partition?

Question

Hello everybody, after three days of work I've finally got my Arch running correctly, and I'm very thrilled about moving on and use it on a regular basis.
Now I have a doubt: during installation I selected to install home in the same partition as file sistem, because I have a home partition for Ubuntu and Fedora and was unsure if setting it would simply create a new folder for Arch, or it would be automatically formatted, which would have meant the destuction of all my data. That means all Arch data is inside the same partition.
So, question is, is there any way to move to that home partition now?
Last edited by Daerun (2011-02-08 22:33:24)

Answer 1

I don't know how many times I have seen this problem - and the solution is oh so easy ...
Forget about /home as such - make it just part of the root filesystem and don't put any data in there.
Instead - mount /myhome  (or whatever you want to call it) on a partition on its own and have all of your users (ie all the usernames you use) rwx-access to it - use it as your 'real' home.
This way, you don't have the clutter of dot-files/directories if you should have more than one distro. To use a common /home for more than one distro is a big fallacy (at least in _my_ eyes) unless you make sure that uid and gid is the same (which is seldom the case if you're a newbie - old hands know better!)
Even if you have the same uid/gid - the dot-files may not be completely compatible and you're heading for troubles.
Another advantage - you can replace a distro with some other distro without thinking twice about it - your 'real' home is safe.
Oh - and while I'm at it.
Why all the different partitions for each distro? (/var, /usr, /home etc). That is OK if you only use one distro - the second you try to install another one you will be heading for troubles.
Just use the root filesystem and give it 20 gigs - 20 gigs for each distro and you will not have any problems - ever (almost). Hey - in these days of terabyte disks for $50, what's the problem?
Then - a final /myhome as a common home partition for all distros.
Another 'mistake' I often see is playing around with different filesystems, trying to wring the last ounce of effort out of a poor diskdrive. Make a /testing partition and experiment to your heart's content with all kind of weird and wonderful filesystem, but keep the root filesystem and your /myhome safe. ext3 and/or reiserfs are excellent filesystems and have been so for years - they are as safe as the bank. ext4 is getting there.
Just my 2c worth ...
Last edited by perbh (2011-02-08 17:38:51)