Re: Partitioning Advice

[Alan Mead <adm ipat com>]

>On Wed, Dec 15, 1999 at 02:16:18PM -0500, Brian Anderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Jason Grovert wrote:
>> 
>> > What is the best way to partition a drive as far as sizing goes.
Let's say
>> > I have a 8 gig hard drive.  How would everyone do it and for what
reasons?
>> 
>> 
>> Depends on what you are doing with it. I usually do
>> 
>> 10 for /boot
>> 100-150 for /
>> 100-200 for /var
>> 250 for /opt
>> 
>> then the rest divided between /var/spool/mail, /usr and /export/home (i do
>> the solaris style of using /export/home, with autofs mounting under /home
>> as needed... force of habit, i work mostly with sun)

Jason, you should check out the discussion of this in older (5x) RH guides
or in many Linux books and I would also check out the fs standard (I think
there's a link on the RH page) about what you're separating of globbing
with these sorts of choices.  Because these choices have implications and
it's hard to pick for you.  For example, you might get really unhappy with
100MB /var if you do something that generates a lot of logging.  

As I see it, the main rationale for making a partition is (1) because you
must (not usually an issue with Linux), (2) to follow a standard, (3) to
localize something like growing log files, mail spools, etc. so that they
don't take up the whole disk, (4) to mount something separately as in a
/usr mounted read-only.  Only you can balance these needs against problems
like running out of room.

In general, I advocate fewer partitions because they can be really
limiting.  I've never used /opt or /export but I understand some programs
expect /opt.  I usually make a /usr partition because, at least in theory,
you can make easier backups, restores, etc. and also allows mounting it
read-only.  You should probably make a smallish /root and I usually
separate /home from the rest of / (including /tmp) but that's a tricky
choice dependent on how many users you will support and who they are.  For
just yourself, I might not separate them.

-Alan
---
Alan D. Mead  /  Research Scientist  /  adm ipat com
Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
1801 Woodfield Dr  /  Savoy IL 61874 USA
217-352-4739 (v)  /  217-352-9674 (f)