Thanks all for the great explainations. They clear up a lot.
Michael
Ray Olszewski wrote:
> The best partitioning varies by application. Servers need different
> partitioning from workstations, specialized servers different from general
> purpose ones, etc.
>
> One reason is to protect critical filesystems from being crowded out by
> others that fill uncontrollably (due to error or an unknowing user). So one
> good split is to separate /home in its own partition, and put all non-system
> stuff there (this mainly means your Web DocumentHome and a directory
> symlinked to /var/spool/mail). This also simplifies upgrades -- you can
> completely replace the system files with a new install, while preserving
> your local files on the /home partition.
>
> Some find it helpful to separate /var/log and /tmp using a similar logic. I
> don't myself, but the case for it is far from frivolous.
>
> Specialized requirements can call for separate partitions. An example would
> be creation of custom rootdisks. Although there are workarounds for this,
> the easy way to do it is to have a small partition that contains only the
> files that go on the rootdisk. For another example, if I were getting a
> Usenet newsfeed, I wouldn't consider anything but its own partition for
> that, both to protect the system and user areas from crowding out and to
> provide the greater number of inodes needed to handle news efficiently.
>
> That said, there is a downside to partitioning -- you may guess wrong and
> fill up a key filesystem like /usr, and have nowhere to turn. (This happened
> to me years ago, on an HP-UX host -- adding another drive was easy, but I
> couldn't readily recreate the filesystem, so I was generating more and more
> symlinks to move various pieces out of /usr and onto the new drive. A real
> nightmare.)
>
> On a drive as small as yours, the downside is far greater than any possible
> benefit. I never partition my half-gig systems, and if I partition my larger
> ones, it's normally the 2-partition approach I described above.
>
> At 08:44 PM 3/5/99 -0500, Michael Stearne wrote [abridged]:
> >Why is it better to partition a disk like / gets some space /usr gets
> >some /home gets some, etc.?
> >
> >Finally. What is a good partition scheme (from scratch, ignore the
> >questions above) for a 500MB disk? (32MB of ram, 64MB for swap)
>
> ------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
> Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
> 762 Garland Drive
> Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603
> 650.328.4219 voice [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
