So, I'm doing things the hard way again over here... I want to add some more space to my linux install. So what I did was empty out a partition I was using for windows, and reformatted it reiserfs. Now, what I want to do is make this new partition /usr. I'm thinking that a simple:

#cd /usr
# cp -Rp * /mnt/xxx
# rm -rf *

and then edit /etc/fstab with the new location of /usr.

Will that work? or is there a better way?

infinite

Seems like it will work just fine. The only thing im curious about is symbolic links and things like that. Don't they point to certain nodes on the harddrive? I would back up /usr to another location before you rm -rf * just to be safe.

Well in thory I'll have it backed up in the new location, yes? If shit pukes and dies I just copy it back and change fstab again. At least this is the way I'm thinking.

I could also just rename /usr instead.

True, I don't think it uses anything from /usr to boot. But I just like to be safe when doing things like that. I've learned plenty of lessons about not backing up.