Does anyone know of a good reason not to link /etc/localtime?
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
With all the shenanigans systemd/udev gets up to I think we have to accept that the days of the traditional approach of having /usr on a separate partition are behind us. While we can still get away with it doing it now, I'm not sure how sustainable it will be given the general direction the other distro are going in, and techniques like copying the localtime file are going to look increasingly "quaint".
On a similar note, I was recently trying to determine why my soundcard mixer settings weren't being restored by udev on startup. It turned out that it's because I have /var on a separate filesystem and /var/lib/alsa/asound.state isn't available when the udev rules that do the "alsactl restore" are run. So, I'm back to using good old rc.alsa!
With all the shenanigans systemd/udev gets up to I think we have to accept that the days of the traditional approach of having /usr on a separate partition are behind us. While we can still get away with it doing it now, I'm not sure how sustainable it will be given the general direction the other distro are going in, and techniques like copying the localtime file are going to look increasingly "quaint".
On a similar note, I was recently trying to determine why my soundcard mixer settings weren't being restored by udev on startup. It turned out that it's because I have /var on a separate filesystem and /var/lib/alsa/asound.state isn't available when the udev rules that do the "alsactl restore" are run. So, I'm back to using good old rc.alsa!
None of my desktop systems have /usr on a separate partition. ALL of my servers have separate partitions for /usr /var / and a data partition (sometimes /home). The system default behavior on most have been to use a link, but I trust a copy for exactly the reasons given above: "What is /usr is not mounted when that file is needed?". I use separate partitions specifically to make a system harder to break. Linking resources between partitions is setting yourself up for problems.
That said, I am moving my new builds to using /usr on the root partition. Disks are bigger, and /usr does not grow without bound using the newer packages. /var can (the cache stuff for mail, printer, software, etc. drives this behavior), so I still split /var off. If you are not putting /usr on a separate partition, then link away.
The point I was making is that these days, if /usr isn't mounted then 'localtime' is just one of your worries.
I use separate /var, /tmp, /home and various /srv/* filesystems as IMO it makes sense to separate system software from general rw-data activity.
What is the point of separating /usr? In the old days it was for NFS mounting across a cluster or for support of diskless hosts. Unless you're still doing something like that I see no point in making your life complicated. But, each to their own...
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.