[TriLUG] Common home directory

[Scott G. Hall]

Brian McCullough wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 02:32:32AM -0400, Scott G. Hall wrote:
>> I would like to enlist your opinions here.  What files or directories
>> would you consider safe for sharing across disparate linux, unix, and
>> other {a-hem, MS} environments?
> 
> Perhaps the first thing to be aware of when you start this project is
> UID differences.  Different distributions have different concepts of UID
> assignment, so if you just go by the default setting for each, you WILL
> be messed up. ( technical term )

Actually, those are already addressed in the previous go-around.  I use
an LDAP-based authentication system that serves the various UNIX and
MS-Windows versions; previously I played with a NIS-based Active Directory
system.  I recently went to a seminar put on by Sun at the Novell Users
Group meeting that discussed open-source single-sign technology.

Anyway, I already use an ext3 filesystem driver for MS-Windows and use
primarily NFS mounts rather than SMB mounts (shared directories with
individual permissions).  Each user has the same UID and same base GID
on every system -- even Windows based systems -- and various group
memberships are shared across systems already.

The purpose of this project is to utilize some new NAS drives made
available.  My intent is to setup raid volumes as primary and backup
stores for the user's files (most of which are you typical business
and home style files: pictures, presentations, documents, email in
MBOX format, personal webpages and web-type apps (scripts)).  They
are severely resisting a CVS or wiki type solution and want a
loosey-goosey free-form home directory store per user.

They also want their email account logins and their browser history
and bookmarks to share across systems as well, plus other application
settings and configurations.  For example if they gather their gmail
and att mail on one machine, they want to login to another machine
and just pick up where they left off -- different environment/OS or
not.  Same for saving bookmarks, tab settings, cookies, junk mail
filter learnings, and such in browsers, fonts settings and other
style settings in their word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation
editor, and so on.

And get this -- they also want to be to thumbdrive a lot of it and
take it home with them.  Not just documents and pictures, but application
settings and configs as well.  I think I can setup a common environment
at one location on their intranet, but I don't think I can come up with
the myriad of scripts necessary to auto-tweak their home systems to
match.  A few maybe, but I can't account for every possible combination
of what they could have setup at home.

So you see, I want see what all you guys have done like this, and what
you might recommend for the pieces parts of this project.  I would like
to address what you might have learned, and what best practices you have
decided upon.  References to articles are welcome too -- I don't mind
doing some research.  Just please avoid transactions and super-in-depth
detailings (ie. PhD research articles) as I just don't have that kind
of time to get this done.

-- 
Scott G. Hall
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net