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How do I use my home directory on a separate partition?

rated 0 times [ 7] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 21633 / 2 Years ago, sat, july 2, 2022, 12:15:46

My understanding of disc partitioning has always been that you partition a disc to install multiple operating systems so you can boot from multiple operating systems on a single disc. However I'm reading a ubuntu server book and it talks about partitioning the /home directory of a ubuntu installation.

"The /home directory is a popular partitioning candidate among both administrators and desktop users alike because it holds all of the personal files for user accounts on that machine. If you maintain /home as a separate partition, you can install new versions of a distribution or even different distributions altogether without wiping out any user settings."

I don't see how and why anyone would partition the home directory or any other directory for that matter in the file system of a ubuntu installation.

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ouschee

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answered 2 Years ago erranbe · Accepted Answer

You quoted the answer to your own question...

If you maintain /home as a separate partition, you can install new versions of a distribution or even different distributions altogether without wiping out any user settings.

A partition is just a way to separate the files in the hard drive, it doesn't need to be a place for an operating system. If your system partition and your home partition are separated, if you upgrade your system it'll only affect the system partition, leaving your data alone.

There are other uses for a different data partition such as encrypting it or a having a different filesystem than the operating system's one.

Note that Linux treats /home, /usr, /var... as folders, even if they are separate partitions (they are mounted at bootup). So having a separate /home partition won't affect you in any negative way, go ahead and do it.

If you intend to have a server someday, I'd advise to use a separate /var partition, and probably a separate /usr and /tmp too.