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Date:      Mon, 20 Oct 2003 09:09:22 +0100
From:      Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
To:        wolfie@cotse.net
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Correcting my own msg (was Sanity and /var/tmp)
Message-ID:  <20031020080922.GC15500@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <200310191252.52885@X-tra>
References:  <200310191236.56846@X-tra> <200310191252.52885@X-tra>

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On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 12:52:52PM -0700, wolfie@cotse.net wrote:
> On Sunday 19 October 2003 12:36 pm, I sent a message with a few ugly=20
> typos.=20
>=20
> It should have read:=20
> >  This may be an incredibly stupid question. Nevertheless I'm gonna=20
> ask...
> >
> >   Is it safe and sane in a RELENG_5_1 system to create and use
> > /var/ tmp via a script in /etc/rc.local:
> >
> >  	[no entry in FSTAB]
> >  	mdconfig -a -t swap -s ... -u 10
> >  	newfs -O2 /dev/md10
> >  	mount /md10 /var/tmp
> >  	chmod 1777 /var/tmp

Using a memory based filesystem for /tmp (rather than /var/tmp) is
certainly viable.  Which ever temporary file system is involved, you
should be able to configure it entirely out of /etc/fstab -- see the
mdmfs(8) man page.

Historically /var/tmp was always a "real" filesystem and the contents
of /var/tmp were expected to persist across reboots.  Stuff in /tmp
was expected to disappear.  However, nowadays that distinction is
fading away and many people will advise you to have just one temporary
file system and use sym-links to make it appear in all of the expected
places.

Running with a memory based /var/tmp should be fine generally.  You'll
need to double check that you aren't running any applications which
rely on the persistence of /var/tmp over reboots.  That's going to be
uncommon nowadays, but there are a couple of examples I can think of
directly: eg. vi(1) won't be able to recover editor files across
reboots and the TeX/LaTeX/metafont font cache will be wiped out by the
reboot and so forth.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK

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