Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 14:37:55 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: Mike Meyer <mwm-dated-1008693253.aee47f@mired.org> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.1.5 Installation - Disk Space Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10112131405410.6058-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <15384.55429.649720.20833@guru.mired.org>
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On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Mike Meyer wrote: > Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> types: > > If you have less than 600MB allowed for FreeBSD, just use swap and one > > file system, /. > > > > If more allow 100MB for /, /var at 60MB (since you're not running a mail > > server etc. for a lot of people), swap, and the rest for /usr. > > I hate to disagree with Annelise, but if you do what she suggests, > you'll probably regret it later. Greg Lehey - and my experiences with > FreeBSD the last few years - have convinced me that the only valid > reason for creating extra file systems are administrative. So, unless > you're planning on treating /, /var and /usr differently in some way, > leave them all on the same file system. Otherwise, you're just > creating more things to run out of space, and will wind up back here > asking how to move space from one file system to another. > > My recommendation for new users is to create at most two file systems > as well as swap: / and /home. Keep your private stuff on /home. That > way, when you get a new release, you can do a "clean" install onto / > without losing your data on /home. If you don't much space - where > "much" depends on what you're planning on doing - having just one file > system - / - is better. I think it's not clear here what's a file system that's part of a slice (a slice being a dos-style partition, e.g., ad0s1, ad0s2 are slices) versus partitions created within a slice, e.g., ad0s1a, ad0s1b, ad0s2a, ad0s2e, etc.) You can delete (and then reinstall) a dos-style partition, that is, a slice. A hard drive in a pc can have four slices, one of which can be an extended partition (can hold Windows or linux logical partitions, but not FreeBSD). A slice can have 8 partitions, e.g., ad0s1a, ad0s1b, etc. So whether you want FreeBSD on more than one slice is the first question. I've never made swap a separate slice, but I have put /usr/local and /home in separate slices, sometimes putting home on /usr/local. Sometimes I've left unparititioned space so I could later partition it and create file systems on it for whatever purpose. As for the idea that the only purposes of separate divisions of a slice into partitions (swap always being its own partition, of course, within the slice) other than / being administrative, the administrative differences may be very important. You can back up a file system, e.g., ad0s1f; that's the "unit" dump uses (I think I've got this right). You can mount a file system read-write or read-only. I think more and more there's an interest in mounting /usr read-only; but /var is of little use read-only, as this is where (unless you change it) the mail spool, printer spool, and log files live. Also if you want to enable softupdates, if you have only / as a file system, I think you need to do it on installation (it can be done from sysinstall now) or you need to be able to "get to it" while it's not mounted and run tunefs on it. There's more than one way to do that, but I don't think there's any convenient way. Overall we probably have another case here that a FreeBSD installation allows enormous flexibility to meet the needs of the purposes for which you are going to be using the machine, so there's no "right" answer. I guess in summary I'd say that for a system that doesn't have specfic server purposes (like hosting shell accounts, for example) I'd still go with a slice with /, swap, /var, and /user unless it was a small slice; small to me right now is 600MB or less. Annelise -- Annelise Anderson Author of: FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your PC Available from: BSDmall.com and amazon.com (only BSDmall.com has 2nd edition right now) Book Website: http://www.bittreepress.com/FreeBSD/introbook/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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