FAQ ~~~ * What is the purpose of this package? The usrmerge package will convert the system it is installed on to the everything-in-usr directories scheme, i.e. the /{bin,sbin,lib}/ directories become symbolic links to /usr/{bin,sbin,lib}/. In addition to the conversion program it provides a dpkg configuration file that works around the few packages that install a file in the same directories in / and /usr, until they will be fixed. * Will usrmerge also merge /usr/bin/ and /usr/sbin/? No. * Does this require systemd? No. * Does this really not require systemd? Yes, I promise. * Does this require an initramfs? Only if /usr is on a standalone file system. * But I hate initramfses and I really do not want to use one! Maybe you only hate initramfs-tools? If you build your own custom kernel with static drivers for your block device and file system then you can mount /usr with just a 12 KB initramfs image containing https://github.com/chris-se/tiny-initramfs . * What are the benefits of everything-in-usr? Please consult the web pages listed in the "Other documentation" section of this file. * What are the downsides of everything-in-usr? If you can find any then please contact the maintainer of this package. * If I convert my system to everything-in-usr, how will I be able to recover it from a failure of the /usr filesystem without the tools in /? This question is not relevant to everything-in-usr, because Debian has not supported booting without /usr being mounted for a long time anyway. I recommend to install the grml-rescueboot package which will not only allow one to recover from corruption of /usr but also of /. * Is it safe to do the live conversion of a running system? Almost totally safe: currently the conversion process has some races, but they are very small and can only be noticed if a daemon tries to run a program at the wrong time. I recommend to not worry about this. * The conversion program has failed with an error, now what? Fix the error and run it again. Repeat until no more errors are reported. Removal of this package ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The usrmerge package can be removed once the system has been converted, and it will be replaced by the empty usr-is-merged package. Other documentation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/TheCaseForTheUsrMerge https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/UsrMove http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html