/Users on Separate Partition

[xiaodidi]

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021011053443661

I noticed the complex instructions above to use dedicate partitions for /Users, /Applications, etc.

With OS 10.3, I managed to move the /Users to a separate partition just be doing a symbolic link, like this ("ls -l /" output)

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin [...] Users -> /Volumes/Users_Partition

no need to change the fstab file, netinfo, etc.

I can create and delete users and the proper data appears or disappears in "Users_Partition". The system has been stable for years. Recently I had some problems, reinstalled 10.3 with the same setup and has been running well for about a month. I am not interested in changing Applications and swap locations.

Is this too good to be true? Will it work with Leopard? I can try the upgrade but a little support won't hurt...

Thanks!

[giskard22]

I think going with a symlink is fine. If you were trying to run OS X Server, this would be a bad idea, but with regular OS X I don't think you'll have any problems.

[acme.mail.order]

Generally Apple expects certain things to be in certain places. I've usually left /Users alone, containing a backup admin user ( in case the other drive/partition is unavailable ) but moved the individual user folders somewhere else using the symlink method. It's a visible and easily maintainable method - the one shown on the Hints page is rather tortuous.

[xiaodidi]

Generally Apple expects certain things to be in certain places. I've usually left /Users alone, containing a backup admin user ( in case the other drive/partition is unavailable ) but moved the individual user folders somewhere else using the symlink method. It's a visible and easily maintainable method - the one shown on the Hints page is rather tortuous.

Thanks, this is a home computer for basically one user. I'll live the admin alone, because it contains upgrade packages to restore the system in case of a re-install.

[Hal Itosis]

Leopard makes this easier: System Preferences -> Accounts
control-click on a user and select "Advanced Options..." from the popup menu.

There is a text field for 'Home Directory'.
[haven't tried it myself. ;) ]

-HI-

[xiaodidi]

I upgraded from 10.3 to 10.5 without major problems. The initial link was removed, but I recreated it later. The missing link may also be due to the fact that I started installing on the "home" partition, before realising the mistake. I'll see what happens with the next upgrade.

A single link to the /Users may have some advantages, because if you change drive/partition later, you only have to fix one link, instead of all home locations.

I wonder about the Hint I mentioned on top: is it now obsolete?

I'll have a look at security issues with this link recipe.