FAQ
~~~
* What is the purpose of this package?
The usrmerge package will convert the system it is installed on to the
everything-in-usr directories scheme, i.e. the /{bin,sbin,lib}/ directories
become symbolic links to /usr/{bin,sbin,lib}/.
In addition to the conversion program it provides a dpkg configuration
file that works around the few packages that install a file in the same
directories in / and /usr, until they will be fixed.
* Will usrmerge also merge /usr/bin/ and /usr/sbin/?
No.
* Does this require systemd?
No.
* Does this really not require systemd?
Yes, I promise.
* Does this require an initramfs?
Only if /usr is on a standalone file system.
* But I hate initramfses and I really do not want to use one!
Maybe you only hate initramfs-tools? If you build your own custom kernel
with static drivers for your block device and file system then you can
mount /usr with just a 12 KB initramfs image containing
https://github.com/chris-se/tiny-initramfs .
* What are the benefits of everything-in-usr?
Please consult the web pages listed in the "Other documentation" section
of this file.
* What are the downsides of everything-in-usr?
If you can find any then please contact the maintainer of this package.
* If I convert my system to everything-in-usr, how will I be able to
recover it from a failure of the /usr filesystem without the tools in /?
This question is not relevant to everything-in-usr, because Debian has
not supported booting without /usr being mounted for a long time anyway.
I recommend to install the grml-rescueboot package which will not only
allow one to recover from corruption of /usr but also of /.
* Is it safe to do the live conversion of a running system?
Almost totally safe: currently the conversion process has some races,
but they are very small and can only be noticed if a daemon tries to
run a program at the wrong time. I recommend to not worry about this.
* The conversion program has failed with an error, now what?
Fix the error and run it again. Repeat until no more errors are reported.
* What about the new empty directories like /usr/libx32/?
They must be created to be ready for the possible future installation of
multilib library packages (like e.g. libc6-i386 on amd64 systems) or
foreign multiarch library packages (e.g. libc6:amd64 on i386 systems) that
would install files in directories like /libx32/.
If you know that such a package will never be installed, then the
directories and the associated symlinks can be safely deleted.
Removal of this package
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The usrmerge package can be removed once the system has been converted,
and it will be replaced by the empty usr-is-merged package.
Skipping the conversion (UNSUPPORTED)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If a dependency on the usr-is-merged package is satisfied (either directly
or via the Provides of the usrmerge package), then it is guaranteed that
the system has a merged-/usr layout.
As an exception, the automatic conversion to the merged-/usr layout will be
skipped if the file /etc/unsupported-skip-usrmerge-conversion exists
and contains the text "this system will not be supported in the future".
This is only intended to be used on special-purpose systems such as
buildds, and will result in a system no longer supported past the Debian
12 "bookworm" release.
Other documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/TheCaseForTheUsrMerge
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/UsrMove
http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html
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