Moving the users folder??

martinbly · 08-26-2002, 11:15 AM

hi..

Having just purchased Jaguar i am looking at a fresh install... i was wandering can i still move the users folder onto a seperate partition as i had done with 10.1? can i simply do it as i used to (http://www.bombich.com/mactips/homedir.html) or is there a new way to do it in 10.2?

Many thanks

Craig R. Arko · 08-26-2002, 05:55 PM

I used sudo ditto -rsrc /src_dir /target_dir with great effect. Then change the user directory using NetInfo Manager.

I would think Mike's command line method should work too; it looks like niutil hasn't changed.

WillyT · 09-14-2002, 08:19 PM

I use symlinks whenever I move something off-world. Ie. make a partition called Users.
Ditto Users to it.

Check to make sure everything moved ok! Then trash or rm the Users dir.

In terminal do

cd /
sudo ln -s /Volumes/Users /Users

Netinfo won't even have to be touched. New users will be created in the new partition.

I set this up in 10.1 and the Jag upgrade sees it just fine.

Willy

mervTormel · 09-21-2002, 11:18 PM

rather than trash the original users dir, just rename it with a move; ought to take it out of the picture, and leave it intact for recovery or future needs.

the idea is to not delete, but merely take it out of focus, until later

% sudo mv /Users /Users.save

ct4christopher · 09-25-2002, 02:31 AM

Maybe 10.2 is different. I never tried this in 10.1 so I don't know how well it worked before but...

When I attempted to 'sudo rm -r /Users', it seemed to disappear. Even with a 'ls -a' it was not visible in the root directory. However, when I next tried to 'ln -s' to a /Volumes/NAME/Users the message that /Users already exists kept returning.

This was contradicted by the Tab complete feature that made me spell out every letter of /Users if I typed it. It seems that a new folder was visible later in the GUI (probably regenerated at startup). Not only the /Users directory but, apparently, enough of the contents to gain function.

I was able to prevent this reappearance by creating a /Volume/Users and putting an alias in the root directory. However, I later decided to take it out of root because I could not make the accounts preference pane create new accounts properly.

For now I have a Volume/users with the Home directories and aliases of the homes in the /Users directory.

When I create a new account I move it out of the /Users and place it on /Volumes/users and change the home address in Netinfo Manager. It is not a very elegant solution compared to those listed above but they did not work for me.

Anyone else try this? Will I have trouble with this arrangement?

Thanks for your help.

hschickel · 09-25-2002, 02:53 AM

In both OSX.1.x and OSX.2 you're better off leaving a /Users at root. Some applications expect to be able to place items in /Users/Shared.

As mentioned above this works with a sym link (at least up to OSX.1.5) but it's a pita when Apple updaters trample sym links without a care in the world.

Leave /Users alone.
sudo ditto -rsrc /Users/username /Volumes/whereveryouwanttogo
File the change with Netinfo Manager.
After testing the setup you can sudo rm -r /Users/username.

Hugh

WillyT · 09-27-2002, 02:18 AM

Ditto seemed like it should work and everybody else seemed to be using it.

I have to confess I logged in as root and used to finder to copy each folder in /Users to my /Volume/Users partition.

Threw /Users in the trash emptied it and then created the symlink.

I don't remember if I had to chown anything as this has been many moons ago.

Sorry if I mislead anyone.

I have not seen any installers that do not respect the symlink. There are very few things that can even tell a symlink is there. Just ls, rm, and the Finder. Netinfo just follows it like everything is supposed to.

Code:

[dreamersound:~] williamt% ls -l /Users
lrwxr-xr-t    1 root     admin          14 Sep 26 04:58 /Users -> /Volumes/Users
[dreamersound:~] williamt% ls /Users
Desktop DB  Desktop Folder  Shared           TheFindByContentFolder   Trash  geraldin  williamt
Desktop DF  Library         Temporary Items  TheVolumeSettingsFolder  edp    tester
[dreamersound:~] williamt% cd /Users
[dreamersound:/Users] williamt% ls -l
total 52
-rw-r--r--    1 root     unknown     24576 Aug 29 19:39 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--    1 root     unknown     27938 Aug 29 19:39 Desktop DF
drwxrwxrwx    2 williamt unknown        68 Sep 23  2001 Desktop Folder
drwxrwxrwx    4 williamt unknown       136 Sep 11 17:47 Library
drwxrwxrwt   12 root     wheel         408 Sep 22 13:32 Shared
drwxr-xr-x    4 williamt unknown       136 Jun 30 01:13 Temporary Items
drwxrwxrwx    2 williamt unknown        68 May 14  2001 TheFindByContentFolder
drwxrwxrwx    4 williamt unknown       136 Aug 16  2001 TheVolumeSettingsFolder
drwxrwxrwx    2 williamt unknown        68 Apr 10 17:27 Trash
drwx------   16 edp      unknown       544 Apr 10 19:53 edp
drwx------   48 geraldin staff        1632 Sep 23 08:07 geraldin
drwx------   14 tester   unknown       476 Jul 21 06:37 tester
drwx------  130 williamt staff        4420 Sep 26 02:16 williamt

ct4christopher · 09-27-2002, 10:44 AM

thanks, Willy

I wonder what things look like in Netinfo Manager. Where is home for williamt?

Is it /Users or /Volumes/Users?

Can you now create new accounts with these properties or values in Jaguar?

For example, would new account "test" have:

a picture in the login window?

a house on /Volumes/Users?

a listing in /Users as staff with drwx------ status?

I appreciate your patience.

WillyT · 09-27-2002, 05:45 PM

The only problem I see with a new user is that the home permissions are showing as 755. Ie readable and executable by group and other.

The included folders are ok including Sites and Public which are readable by everyone and a Drop box in Public which is write only for group and other.

This may be ok but I usually set the home dirs to be unreadable by group and other. Negating the Sites and Public folders. I don't change their permissions but you can't get there from here sort of thing.

Thus the user has to put their public folders in Shared to be of use from the finder.

My home dir path is both /Users/williamt and /Volumes/Users/williamt .

edit (netinfo shows my home as /Users/williamt)

The Sites dir is correct also as I can access it

http://dreamersound.com/~tommy/

And so can you I presume.
Willy

ct4christopher · 09-28-2002, 08:25 AM

I tried both linking the home directory and linking the Users directory (on different installs) and both worked just as WillyT says.

PLAN 1

If you link home, Netinfo shows no change. If you choose to change /Users/home to /Volumes/Users/home you can, it seems to make no difference at first but after a few restarts, you may be filing the change of address with the Manager.

In the GUI, linking the home directory gives you two little house icons, (kinda cool), one on each Volume. On the X Volume it has the little alias mark in the lower left corner.

New accounts will be created on the X Volume.
---
PLAN 2

If you link the /Users there is no change that I can see in Netinfo, just like Willy says. Again, if you want to change addresses of your users home, go ahead, you might be able to get by, but maybe not.

In the GUI, linking the Users directory loses the special Users folder icon and gives you two generic folder icons. The one on the X Volume is marked as an alias.

New accounts will be created on the Users Volume.
---

I moved things from the terminal with: ditto -rsrc
I deleted things from the terminal with: rm -r
I linked things from the terminal with: ln -s
It all worked just like WillyT said it would.

Time will tell how stable these plans are. But at this stage, I'm willing to bet that WillyT may also be right about the stability of moving the /Users directory.

Of course, if you don't plan on making a lot of new accounts on a different Volume, why take the risk?

Like Hugh advises above, leave all that stuff back on the X Volume and just move your home.

Thanks to both of you and all who contributed to this thread.

Now for the confession, I used root. And, it got me in trouble when I moved things in the GUI. When I tried to copy home and create aliases, the permissions came out wrong, way wrong. One way to check your links is to try to change the ownership of the aliases. They should be owned by system and not changeable. Somehow in copying the home folder in finder the permissions came out read and write for everyone and that can't be good. So stay in the terminal and stay safe.

08-26-2002, 11:15 AM	#1
martinbly Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 39	Moving the users folder?? hi.. Having just purchased Jaguar i am looking at a fresh install... i was wandering can i still move the users folder onto a seperate partition as i had done with 10.1? can i simply do it as i used to (http://www.bombich.com/mactips/homedir.html) or is there a new way to do it in 10.2? Many thanks

09-14-2002, 08:19 PM	#3
WillyT Major Leaguer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Midwest Not quite Normal Posts: 416	Use symlink I use symlinks whenever I move something off-world. Ie. make a partition called Users. Ditto Users to it. Check to make sure everything moved ok! Then trash or rm the Users dir. In terminal do cd / sudo ln -s /Volumes/Users /Users Netinfo won't even have to be touched. New users will be created in the new partition. I set this up in 10.1 and the Jag upgrade sees it just fine. Willy

09-21-2002, 11:18 PM	#4
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	rather than trash the original users dir, just rename it with a move; ought to take it out of the picture, and leave it intact for recovery or future needs. the idea is to not delete, but merely take it out of focus, until later % sudo mv /Users /Users.save __________________ On a clear disk, you can seek forever.

09-25-2002, 02:53 AM	#6
hschickel All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: NY, NY Posts: 776	In both OSX.1.x and OSX.2 you're better off leaving a /Users at root. Some applications expect to be able to place items in /Users/Shared. As mentioned above this works with a sym link (at least up to OSX.1.5) but it's a pita when Apple updaters trample sym links without a care in the world. Leave /Users alone. sudo ditto -rsrc /Users/username /Volumes/whereveryouwanttogo File the change with Netinfo Manager. After testing the setup you can sudo rm -r /Users/username. Hugh __________________ First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

09-27-2002, 10:44 AM	#8
ct4christopher Prospect Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 31	thanks, Willy I wonder what things look like in Netinfo Manager. Where is home for williamt? Is it /Users or /Volumes/Users? Can you now create new accounts with these properties or values in Jaguar? For example, would new account "test" have: a picture in the login window? a house on /Volumes/Users? a listing in /Users as staff with drwx------ status? I appreciate your patience. Last edited by ct4christopher; 09-27-2002 at 11:42 AM.

08-26-2002, 05:55 PM	#2
Craig R. Arko Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 3,988	I used sudo ditto -rsrc /src_dir /target_dir with great effect. Then change the user directory using NetInfo Manager. I would think Mike's command line method should work too; it looks like niutil hasn't changed.

09-25-2002, 02:31 AM	#5
ct4christopher Prospect Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 31	Maybe 10.2 is different. I never tried this in 10.1 so I don't know how well it worked before but... When I attempted to 'sudo rm -r /Users', it seemed to disappear. Even with a 'ls -a' it was not visible in the root directory. However, when I next tried to 'ln -s' to a /Volumes/NAME/Users the message that /Users already exists kept returning. This was contradicted by the Tab complete feature that made me spell out every letter of /Users if I typed it. It seems that a new folder was visible later in the GUI (probably regenerated at startup). Not only the /Users directory but, apparently, enough of the contents to gain function. I was able to prevent this reappearance by creating a /Volume/Users and putting an alias in the root directory. However, I later decided to take it out of root because I could not make the accounts preference pane create new accounts properly. For now I have a Volume/users with the Home directories and aliases of the homes in the /Users directory. When I create a new account I move it out of the /Users and place it on /Volumes/users and change the home address in Netinfo Manager. It is not a very elegant solution compared to those listed above but they did not work for me. Anyone else try this? Will I have trouble with this arrangement? Thanks for your help.

09-27-2002, 05:45 PM	#9
WillyT Major Leaguer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Midwest Not quite Normal Posts: 416	Most but not all looks ok. The only problem I see with a new user is that the home permissions are showing as 755. Ie readable and executable by group and other. The included folders are ok including Sites and Public which are readable by everyone and a Drop box in Public which is write only for group and other. This may be ok but I usually set the home dirs to be unreadable by group and other. Negating the Sites and Public folders. I don't change their permissions but you can't get there from here sort of thing. Thus the user has to put their public folders in Shared to be of use from the finder. My home dir path is both /Users/williamt and /Volumes/Users/williamt . edit (netinfo shows my home as /Users/williamt) The Sites dir is correct also as I can access it http://dreamersound.com/~tommy/ And so can you I presume. Willy Last edited by WillyT; 09-27-2002 at 06:21 PM.

09-28-2002, 08:25 AM	#10
ct4christopher Prospect Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 31	WillyT and symlinks are amazing I tried both linking the home directory and linking the Users directory (on different installs) and both worked just as WillyT says. PLAN 1 If you link home, Netinfo shows no change. If you choose to change /Users/home to /Volumes/Users/home you can, it seems to make no difference at first but after a few restarts, you may be filing the change of address with the Manager. In the GUI, linking the home directory gives you two little house icons, (kinda cool), one on each Volume. On the X Volume it has the little alias mark in the lower left corner. New accounts will be created on the X Volume. --- PLAN 2 If you link the /Users there is no change that I can see in Netinfo, just like Willy says. Again, if you want to change addresses of your users home, go ahead, you might be able to get by, but maybe not. In the GUI, linking the Users directory loses the special Users folder icon and gives you two generic folder icons. The one on the X Volume is marked as an alias. New accounts will be created on the Users Volume. --- I moved things from the terminal with: ditto -rsrc I deleted things from the terminal with: rm -r I linked things from the terminal with: ln -s It all worked just like WillyT said it would. Time will tell how stable these plans are. But at this stage, I'm willing to bet that WillyT may also be right about the stability of moving the /Users directory. Of course, if you don't plan on making a lot of new accounts on a different Volume, why take the risk? Like Hugh advises above, leave all that stuff back on the X Volume and just move your home. Thanks to both of you and all who contributed to this thread. Now for the confession, I used root. And, it got me in trouble when I moved things in the GUI. When I tried to copy home and create aliases, the permissions came out wrong, way wrong. One way to check your links is to try to change the ownership of the aliases. They should be owned by system and not changeable. Somehow in copying the home folder in finder the permissions came out read and write for everyone and that can't be good. So stay in the terminal and stay safe. Last edited by ct4christopher; 09-28-2002 at 07:04 PM.