How to move /usr from one partition to another partition safely

Question

Linux, Debian.

Now I have:

/dev/sda5   on /
/dev/sda6   on /home
/dev/sda7   on /usr

I would like to use sda6 to hold /usr, then free /dev/sda7 for other use.

What is the safest way to do this? I am confused about how to create a /usr on /dev/sda6 and issue copy command without confusing Linux.

Do you have enough free space on /dev/sda6 to hold all the data from both /home and /usr? — Teddy, Feb 25 '14 at 06:29

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 25 '14 at 10:21

2

I can see no good way for two subdirectories to share a partition, except for using a symbolic link:

Copy everything from /usr into /home

cp --archive --sparse=always --one-file-system /usr /home

Unmount /usr, remove the empty mount point and make a symlink
```
umount /usr

rmdir /usr

ln --symbolic /home/usr /
```
Edit /etc/fstab and remove (or comment out) the line with the /usr mount.
```
sensible-editor /etc/fstab
```
Reboot

edited Feb 25 '14 at 10:21

terdon

answered Feb 25 '14 at 07:05

Teddy

have you tested this ? – Rahul Patil Feb 25 '14 at 07:52
I see a way. mount sda6 onto the root namespace, then mount sda5 on top of that. have fun configuring the initrd for that, though. – strugee Feb 25 '14 at 07:55
@RahulPatil No. – Teddy Mar 10 '14 at 03:03

1 Answers1