RE: 'Proper' partitioning

[Uncle Meat <kcsmart worldinter net>]

On 31-May-99 Alex opined:

> I have the impression that partitioning is a matter of the intended
> use
> of the computer, involving_ 'educated guessing' and that if the guess
> is
> wrong, the benefit of partitioning ends up in the mind of the
> partitioner.

Yep.

> What advantage would 'proper' partitioning of 2.7 GB provide compared
> to
> just the two basic / and swap partitions in a single computer /
> multi-user / non-specific application?

Only real advantage is the time it takes to fsck the drive during boot.
A smaller partition finishes faster.

Since the partitions would all be located on the same drive and the
drive isn't super large, it would be hardly worth breaking it up into
smaller pieces. As a matter of fact, you'd end up losing a bit of space
by doing so.

Anyway, this is linux: rebooting is usually an option, unlike a certain
pseudo-OS I could name. So the time it takes to fsck the whole drive
shouldn't be a problem too often.

> What would you recommend for partitions as a starter for someone in
> my
> situation?_ Is it true that only one partition should be growable?

If you _GOTTA_ do it, make /usr huge. Try to keep the essentials (/etc
/var /boot /lib /sbin /dev and possibly /root and /tmp) all on the same
partition. Some will argue about a couple of those, especially /boot.
But, that's a matter of taste and doesn't really matter as long as the
whole of / is below 1024.

I've never concerned myslef with 'growable' and have only seen others'
expressed opinions/knowledge about it. I have no personal idea.

Then again, I may have no personal idea about anything!

---
   The three Rs of Microsoft support: Retry, Reboot, Reinstall.