Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: auspex!guy@uunet.uu.net (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Shutting down a Sun System with a Shell Script
Message-ID: <737@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 29 Dec 88 22:55:32 GMT
References: <2355@kalliope.rice.edu>
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 20
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: 17 Dec 88 05:21:59 GMT
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 77, message 10 of 14

>Yes, I didn't like the looks of this when I was installing 4.0. I mean,
>what happens if my /usr partition gets trashed? Install from the tapes and
>have to fix all the bugs and security holes again (1/2 :-). No thanks.

Why not just bring up UNIX on the mini-root (following the installation
steps up to the point at which you boot the mini-root) and use "newfs" and
"restore" from the mini-root to restore "/usr" from dump tapes?  As I
remember, they're both on the mini-root. 

I thought that (modulo "mkfs" vs.  "newfs" and "restor" vs.  "restore")
was Standard Operating Procedure all the way back to 4.1BSD (or whatever
BSD release first introduced the mini-root).  V7 had stand-alone versions
of "mkfs" and "restor" that could be used for much the same purpose - the
mini-root just obviated the need for quite so many stand-alone
utilities....

[[ If /usr is on its own partition, you don't even have to mess with the
"mini-root", just boot single user.  In order to do this, however, you
need to have made a dump of your /usr partition in the recent past.  But
you shoud be doing that periodically anyway.  --wnl ]]