[ILUG] Merging directories transparently

[Philip Reynolds]

David Neary's [bolsh at gimp.org] 34 lines of wisdom included:
> Paul Jakma wrote:
> > On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, Philip Reynolds wrote:
> > 
> > > mount -t nfs 127.0.0.1:/mnt/archive/src /usr/local/src
> > 
> > why go to all that bother, linux (2.4 at least) allows you to mount 
> > directories on other directories (mount --bind):
> > 
> > tada..
> 
> That hides all (0) files in /tmp/test, though, rather than
> merging the contents of the two directories.
> 
> I haven't tried the NFS suggestion, so I don't know if it works,
> but I suppose it does :) Unfortunately my kernel doesn't have any
> nfs in it (client or server), and a rebuild & reboot would be too
> much like trouble :)

The Debian Way(tm):

apt-get install nfs-common nfs-server.
vim /etc/exports
mount ...

NFS can be installed in kernel-land, but it can be installed in
userland as well, no need for a reboot.

Of course, if you're using a different distribution, you're gonna
have to use it's own package management system or compile by hand.

mount --bind is built into, as standard, 2.4 kernels only, as far as
I'm aware plus userspace support for it is not the best either (I
don't keep up with stuff as Linux as much as I used to, this may
have changed). 

Anyways, glad to be of help Dave.

Phil.