On Tue, Nov 06, 2018 at 09:18:27AM -0500, David Higgs wrote: > > As the FAQ entry states, you can use growfs(8) if the empty space > > is after the existing partition, not prior. You can only grow a > > partition "down", never "up". What you want to do would require the > > following steps: > > > > 1. Create a new partition on the free space > > 2. Move all data to the new partition > > 3. Remove the existing /project partition > > 4. Use growfs(8) on the new partition to include the space from the old > > /project partition > > You appear to be right - I see it now. I had not read closely enough, > and had focused more on what I could change with the 'm' disklabel(8) > command. It would be nice if this info were made explicit in the > growfs(8) man page as well. > > I had already successfully rearranged some partitions using the method > you propose, but unfortunately the amount of data in /project is > slightly too big to be easily shifted into my remaining free space. > I'll try to compress it or temporarily move the data off-system. >
I use growfs a lot. I try to plan ahead of time to put partitions that I can sacrifice when I desperately need to possibly grow something like /usr/local or some other important partition. Sometimes I have a partition for the PKG_CACHE when I need to avoid downloading the packages twice for another computer. This is a partition, for me, that I can sacrifice and use to grow the preceding partition. Buy a bigger disk is not always a practical answer. If you haven't already done it, taking a picture of disklabel, fstab and df never hurt. Easier than writing it down. Well, I've been in your position pulling out hairs many times. Worst case is having a small useless partition stuck in the middle somewhere. Good Luck, Chris Bennett
