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Date:      Sat, 26 Aug 2000 01:55:50 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
To:        Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Re-partioning hard disk
Message-ID:  <14759.27126.94846.698281@guru.mired.org>
In-Reply-To: <104765754@toto.iv>

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Greg Lehey writes:
> While you're at it, take a look at my new recommendation on
> partitioning, attached, from the upcoming fourth edition of "The
> Complete FreeBSD"

Do you mind if a greybeard makes a comments on them?

> As a result, I now recommend:
> o Make a single root file system of between 2 and 4 GB.
> o Do not have separate /usr or /var file systems.
> o Use  the  rest  of the space on disk for a /home file system, as long as it's
>   possible to back it up on  a  single  tape.   Otherwise  make  multiple  file
>   systems.  /home is the normal directory for user files.
> This  layout allows for easy backup of the file systems, and it also allows for
> easy upgrading to a new system version: you just need to replace the root  file
> system.   It's  not perfect, though: on a web server you probably wouldn't want
> to put /var on the root file system.

This is perfectly reasonable for a production machine. I've found a
setup I prefer, based on a rather radical backup solution.

Basically, the idea is to make sure that *everything* on /usr comes
from the BSD distribution, then don't bother to back it up. Things
that don't come from ports are installed on /home. distfiles for ports
are on /home and are backed up.  Files on /usr that have to be changed
are tracked in a source control system (I use perforce) that stores
it's files on /home. Restoring /usr amounts to reinstalling it -
either from the CD-ROMS if it's running -RELEASE, or as an install
from the sources if it's tracking -stable or -current, reinstalling
the ports that were installed, and then a single perforce command to
install the most recent version of changed files.

In theory, root could be treated the same as /usr. A number of factors
keep me from doing that: 1) most of the config changes are on /,
including things like passwords that are generally tweaked by tools
and not people; 2) / is relatively small; 3) lack of nerves on my
part.

/var needs to be backed up, because /var/db/pkg documents the set of
installed packages. So it gets bundled into / or not, for the same
reasons you indicated.

	<mike



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