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[[!tag faq/running]]

[[!meta title="Why is `/usr' a symbolic link to `.'?"]]

The distinction between `/` and `/usr` has historical reasons.  Back when [[Unix]]
systems were booted from two tapes, a small root tape and a big user tape.
Today, we like to use different partitions for these two spaces.  The Hurd
throws this historical garbage away.  We think that we have found a more
flexible solution called union filesystems, which allow to create virtual
filesystems which are the union of several other filesystems.  However, support
for union filesystems is [[still in early development|hurd/translator/unionfs]].