I made my original /usr directory too small and it is pretty full. I managed to free some space on another drive and create a partition named /testusr that's twice as big and mount it on startup.

How would you recommend I copy /usr to /testusr and then make it so testusr is the new usr from here on out? Also, I'd like to regain the space in the now "old" usr for something else.

I tried two things:
cp -p -r /usr /testusr
-- resulted, after a long time, of /usr directory in /testusr
mount --move usr testusr
-- worked, but upon rebooting testusr was empty again

I'm sure the cp may be the way to go (WITH SOME MANIPULATION), and then going with a change to /etc/fstab afterwards, but I wanted to know if there was a foolproof way of doing this.

Regards,
Kurt

I think you should be able to resize the /usr partition with parted. If it's not the last partion you would first use parted to move it to the end, then resize. You'll then have a "hole" that you can add to other partions by resizing them.

I'm not really sure why the cp didn't work. Maybe it should have been
cp -pr /usr/* /testusr/

Someone who knows what they're talking about should correct me if I'm wrong...

You are on the right track there. This is my way.

Mount the new partition like /testusr
Copy the contents of /usr to /testusr
Drop to single user mode with the ' init 1 ' command
Unmount /usr and /testusr
remount new partition as /usr
Edit /etc/fstab and change /dev/hd** to correct partitions.
Reboot.

Brian1

Thanks,
I would have never guessed going to init 1. For my edification, what's the purpose of that part. I tried it first by just editing fstab and rebooting, and that did not work.
Worked like a charm.
Kurt

init is a command to change runlevel. Linux has multiple runlevels from startup to shutdown. When the shutdown command is issued it runs the scripts in /etc/rc6.d. Not not all distro work matching runlevel numbers. Some vary as to what each is.

This list is a few of the ones based on Redhat/Fedora or similiar. Others may vary.
runlevel 1 is basic single user mode, no networking or gui.
runlevel 3 multiuser and networking
runlevel 5 multiuser, networking, and X

Lots of info here and on the net.
Brian1