Re: Correcting my own msg (was Sanity and /var/tmp)

2003-10-20 Thread Matthew Seaman
On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 12:52:52PM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Sunday 19 October 2003 12:36 pm, I sent a message with a few ugly 
> typos. 
> 
> It should have read: 
> >  This may be an incredibly stupid question. Nevertheless I'm gonna 
> 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

-- 
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


pgp0.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Correcting my own msg (was Sanity and /var/tmp)

2003-10-19 Thread wolfie
On Sunday 19 October 2003 12:36 pm, I sent a message with a few ugly 
typos. 

It should have read: 
>  This may be an incredibly stupid question. Nevertheless I'm gonna 
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
>
>  


___
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"