On 29-Nov-2001 Russell Andrew Willis wrote: > I am a relatively new user under RH7.1 on a dual boot drive with Win98. > I have been doing some research on the Linux file system layout > especially the pros & cons of multiple partitions. I understand the > importance of specific files/ directories & their positioning on the > file system tree. I am interested in some clear guidance on what > structure would be suitable for a home user (nothing too complex).
My advice would be to start with a swap partition and a single file system partition. If you're feeling cautious, a small (say 5-10Mb) /boot partition at the start of the disc can avoid problems with older BIOSes and big discs. My personal belief is that spreading the file system over several partitions does have its place, but that the scheme must be designed to fit specific goals and the operating environment must be well understood. A home user starting out on the great Way of the Penguin shoudl apply Occam's Razor. So what do I do? Back in the mists of time I divided my disc into a variety of partitions, only to find myself running out of space in one while acres of disc languished unused in another. This, in a home context, is rather aggravating. I then moved through a single filesystem partition to my current position; a 3Mb /boot partition (my BIOS is old enough to find >8Gb discs problematic), a 4Gb / partition and the rest as /home. I split / and /home because at the time I anticipated moving from RH to Debian and wanted a clear boundary between user files and OS ones. When I did move, I wiped the / partition and installed Debian, and then hooked up /home once that was all in place. Now, of course, I see I'm at 99% usage on / so am going to run into trouble in the future if I keep installing new toys. :-) So if you have lots of disc space and want to experiment with different distros, a separate home partition might be useful. At this stage, though, I'd suggest you do the simple thing and have one filesystem partition. Oh, and watch out for older Unix manuals that propose various interesting schemes (e.g. separate partitions for /usr, /var and so forth). All great fun, and possibly useful for large production multi-user environments, but irrelevant for modern home use. -- Jim Hague - [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Work), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Play) Never trust a computer you can't lift or you don't control. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
