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From: cpenrose@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Christopher Penrose)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Simple System Question
Message-ID: <15005@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 90 18:49:34 GMT
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In article <72100017@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> beaucham@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>In summary, my questions are:
>
>1) What is the '/clients' directory system supposed to be used for?
>
>2) How do you install a user area other than right under root?
>
>3) Why don't new users have their names listed in /etc/passwd?

I may have a few answers.  I remember being in your position when
I just got my cube!  Anyway,  the manuals have these answers as I
discovered, but I think exposing the NeXT's idiosyncracies is 
worth the bandwidth on the net.

You have discovered the liabilities of NetInfo, or Network Information
database.  New users are added directly to a database and are not
automatically updated in /etc.  I hope this is "corrected" or made an
option in 2.0.  

Anyway, your /clients partition can really be used for anything.  It could
be used for home directories if you wish.  You can change its name with 
"mv" and by updating the /etc/fstab.  You might want to check to see if 
"fstab" is a field of the NetInfo database also (like /etc/passwd).  I am 
not sure at this point; my machine is at home.  Here is a way to install 
user directories in another location:

edit the /etc/passwd file
hegel% emacs /etc/passwd

upload the database
hegel% niload passwd . < /etc/passwd
 
if you want /etc/passwd to reflect all the current users, you can dump
the database to that file:

hegel% nidump passwd . > /etc/passwd

If this is not clear enough, or you have problems, check the Netinfo 
section of the NeXT system manuals.

If you are starting to use your cube, you can repartition your hard drive
to have a single partition, or other configurations.  I have a single
partition on my 330 because it gives me a large amount of flexibility.
On your drive,  I would probably create three partitions:

/:		this would be close to 500 megs
/private:	about 60 megs for swap space
/homey:		this would be for users

These are only suggestions.  I would make a seperate swap partition
only to avoid dumping it when doing backups.  The seperate user partition
is optional in my mind, but it could be useful for backups also.  I 
have mentioned these configuration options only to suggest that you have
the freedom to configure your drive in a way that best suits your intended
use.  You can find examples of disk configurations in /etc.


Christopher Penrose
jesus!penrose