I tried to move user home directory "kathy" to another partition but it doesn't seem to work: usermod -d /home2 -m kathy usermod: no changes usermod -d /home2/kathy -m kathy usermod: cannot rename directory /home2 to /home2/kathy Is it a bug? Reproducible: Always Portage 2.1.10.41 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.5.3, glibc-2.13-r4, 2.6.36-gentoo-r5 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.36-gentoo-r5-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Quad_CPU_Q9550_@_2.83GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.3 Timestamp of tree: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:30:01 +0000 ccache version 3.1.6 [disabled] app-shells/bash: 4.1_p9 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.7.2-r3, 3.1.4-r3 dev-util/ccache: 3.1.6 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.6-r4 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.26 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.3 sys-apps/openrc: 0.9.4 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.21.1-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 4.5.3-r1 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1-r1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r1 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.39 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.13-r4 Repositories: gentoo x-portage ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA googleearth PUEL dlj-1.1 Oracle-BCLA-JavaSE" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/lib64/fax /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa /var/spool/fax/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--autounmask=n" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs collision-protect distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch" FFLAGS="" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror" LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="en" MAKEOPTS="-j6 -l8" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://10.0.0.103/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acpi alsa amd64 apache2 bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cgi cli consolekit cracklib crypt cups cxx dbus dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam firefox flac foomaticdb fortran gdbm gdu gif gimp gimpprint gnome gpm gtk iconv ipv6 java jpeg kde kpathsea lcms ldap libnotify mad mmx mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib mysql ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf png policykit ppds pppd qt3support qt4 readline scanner sdl semantic-desktop session spell sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg sysfs tcpd tetex tiff truetype type1 udev unicode usb vorbis x264 xcb xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" SANE_BACKENDS="epson epson2 fujitsu" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau tdfx vesa fbdev" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
usermod doesn't support moving into a sub-directory of the existing home. this is a fairly pathological use case and would say "don't do that". move it by hand, or do it in two steps: usermod -d /some/place/else -m kathy usermod -d /home2/kathy -m kathy
