Partition help

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sun, 2005-01-30 at 22:25, Thomas Cameron wrote:
> OK, let's examine the logic behind the partition scheme Sobell lays out:
> 
> /boot    100 megabytes
> /        500 megabytes
> (swap)   two times the amount of ram
> /home    As large as necessary, depends upon # of users
> /tmp     Minimum 100 megabytes
> /usr     Minimum 1.7 - 5.5 GB depending what I install
> /var     Minimum 500 Megabytes

> 
> I wouldn't usually contradict Mark Sobell, but since you are just setting up 
> a small system for educational purposes, I would do this:
> 
> /boot (200MB)
> swap (512MB)
> / (the whole rest of the drive)
> 
> And here's why:  Yes, there is some small danger of logfiles or runaway 
> processes filling up your root partition, but in the 10 years I've been 
> running Linux I've only seen that on servers, never on a laptop.  If you do 
> this then you can use all of the remaining part of your hard drive.  You'll 
> never run into the situation where /home has tons of free space but you 
> guessed wrong and /usr is full and you can't install new software.  In my 
> opinion (which is only worth what you've paid for it), the risks are far 
> outweighed by the benefit of not having to take guesses at what your disk 
> usage will be.

For personal laptops and desktop systems I concur!  If you are setting
up a server that will have multiple users breaking up things into
physical file systems has merit, but for personal single user use the
setup you outline above is what I have been using for many years with no
problems.  

I have in the distant past run into the problem of having to expand a
critical file system because the services the machine provide out grew
the original partition plan.  It is not fun to do.  Believe me.


-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

Justice, n.:
	A decision in your favor.