[vox-tech] Before I do this...

[Peter Jay Salzman]

i'd have to agree with rusty on this.

it's especially important for people with debian woody or sid.  most of
us upgrade our system multiple times a day.  package updates get
downloaded to /var/.  after a few months of updating your system, all
the cached packages can really eat up some hard drive.

it's much nicer to see:

apt-get: Not enough room to download requested packages.  Try using
         apt-get clean to clear up some space.

than to learn /var is full by getting "filesystem full" errors.

also, we've seen loads of people on vox-tech whose (for whatever reason)
logrotate daemon fails.  perhaps they dual boot and aren't running
anacron?  i dunno.  anyway, it doesn't create a HUGE problem (so i'd
agree it's not crucial).  but at least if /var is separate, you can use
vim without getting pesky "can't open temp file for writing" errors.

the only caveat for making /var its own partition is to make DAMN sure
it's big enough.  there's no worse feeling in the world than having a
system with a /var that's too small.

ok, a hyperbole to be sure, but i'm sure many of us here had the thought
"i wish /var were bigger" at some point or another.

it's especially important for people who are "X-drones".  people who
can't use linux if they don't have gnome or kde sapping up all their
cpu.  with a full /, their system won't even boot if the default
runlevel is 5.

and THAT'S a total bummer.   :-)

so:

* having a separate /var can be very useful but not crucial
* just make sure it's big enough

pete



begin Rusty Minden <clownsinc@attbi.com> 
> It is not hard to fill a computer with a load of crap. When a partition is 
> filled you can not do much with it until you get rid of the crap that has it 
> filled like core dumps or like a recent problem a program taking up allot of 
> space. Partitioning a hard drive for proper use is easy and results in more 
> security. I go a little overboard, but I like it that way. I have /var 
> separate / separate /usr separate /opt separate (I use SuSE) /home serpate 
> (making upgrades nice I usually do not loose data when upgrading or even when 
> trying out a new distro like Mandrake 8.2 (IMHO a real dog). I also keep a 
> partition /local that I have all of my iso's for the IF in.
> 
> Beyond that I have read several times to do it so I do. I have done so since 
> my second install and have not been unhappy with this decision. I have had an 
> instance when /var was filled and I could not mount it. So I mounted it 
> manually and removed a few of the backup files in /var that SuSE put there 
> and I was off and running again in no time.
> 
> Rusty
> 
> On Monday 25 March 2002 01:09 pm, you wrote:
> > On Monday 25 March 2002 12:44, Rusty Minden wrote:
> > > ... Is it partitioned properly IE is /var and / on separate
> > > partitions this is a pet peeve of mine...
> >
> > I'm just curious to know why you feel so stongly about this.
> > I've heard it before and tend to think it's a good idea, but
> > never thought it was *that* big a deal.
> >
> > -- Rod
> >    http://www.sunsetsystems.com/
> > _______________________________________________
> > vox-tech mailing list
> > vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
> > http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
> _______________________________________________
> vox-tech mailing list
> vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech