[plug] Advice needed

[Leon Brooks]

Bevan Broun wrote:
> I like this idea too but it's not quite as easy as it sounds.

It's easier if you boot from another hard disk. I do this for
reiserfs-ing production machines: install what you want, copy -a or tar
off the contents of each partition in turn, format it, put the stuff
back, do a once-off special LILO config and she's apples. What you're
trying to do sounds similar in principle. You can actually do this live,
even over ssh (by redirecting ssh's log and pid to the /tmp partition
while you get /var reformatted, then borrowing it again later to put /
on temporarily) but it's more difficult and if you make one small error
in any one of about ten places, it's game over.

> I kept
> /usr/local with all my compiled stuff (most of the software I had
> installed) on a seperate partition.

Works well for me too.

-- 
If at first you don't succeed, try a shorter bungee.