Is it OK to move the root home directory to /root?

[Scott Caporale_1]

I'm thinking of moving all our root home directories to /root as in many other UNIX variants. Are there any pro's and con's to doing this?

I think it's much neater.

We are running trusted systems. Do you think this will pose a problem?

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott,

There is no problem whatsoever. In fact it is
encouraged. Have a look at these two links.

http://people.hp.se/stevesk/bastion11.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,11866,0x4499e7e60861d511abcd0090277a778c,00.htm

HTH
-Michael

[Deepak Extross]

Scott,
Just remember to modify the /etc/passwd file correctly and move all, including hidden, files to the new $HOME.
You may need to update some of your environment-setup scripts as well.
And do open an additional session as root while you are making the change, just in case you get locked out. Close it only after you are sure you can login again.

Good Luck.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

Not to forget that if you are running HP-UX in trusted mode, you will need to update root's TCB entry by running pwconv so as to match root's /etc/passwd entry.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http://www.brainbench.com

[Volker Borowski]

Hi Scott,

in addition "/root" should be a directory on the "/"-filesystem, do not put it on a seperate filesystem.

You might be trapped, when you need to boot into single-user mode.

Volker

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Scott:

That is a very good thing as long as /root is in the / filesystem. Another good thing is to create a /root/bin directory with permissions 700. That will allow you to have a good safe place to keep root only scripts or those that are run by cron and must in-turn su to another user.

Clay

[Trevor Dyson]

You could also limit core dump size to stop root filling up the root filesystem if an application core dumps. Put the following in root's .profile:

ulimit -c 0