Hi Kevin,

I'd actually recommend a bit larger partition for /var for at least three
reasons as follows:
First, spool files tend to be stored in /var.  An example is /var/spool/mail
and /var/spool/mqueue.  The mail server uses /var/spool/mqueue to process
mail, while storing mail for users in /var/spool/mail.  So, if you're going
to be processing a lot of mail, doing a lot of printing or anything else
that might require spooling, then you'll definitely want at least 2 or 3 GB
for /var.
2.
Log files tend to get stored in /var/log.  Obviously, growth of these files
will be limited if you're rotating them, either compressing or deleting logs
older than a specific period of time, such as 90 days.  Even so, systems
that are going to have a great deal of activity will need plenty of room for
logs to grow.
3.
Some applications, by default, store their data files in directories under
/var.  I believe MySQL does this, for example.  Obviously, if you've
implemented an application like MySQL and are running large databases, you
can use up a lot of disk realestate very quickly.



Darrell Shandrow - Shandrow Communications!
Technology consultant/instructor, network/systems administrator!
A+, CCNA, Network+!
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Geiss" <kevin@desertsol.com>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: Linux partitions


> for /boot I usually make it about 30mb just to be ridiculously excessive.
>
> I like to have /var and /tmp in their own partitions. they get a bunch
> of small files written to them and deleted constantly. that way you
> don't have to worry about fragmentation in other places. 512mb is nice for
each of these, you have room.
>
> for swap unless you know you will be stressing the system a lot, just
> slightly more than physical ram should be fine. 2x is excessive (unless
> you only have 64mb ram or less). but in general, the more ram you have,
> the less swap you need.
>
> for /home, I usually create a partition of 2 or 3 gb.
>
> then a 8gb /usr partition would be plenty big.
>
> with all those partitions, you will only need 256mb or less for the /
> (root) partition.
>
> then with all the rest of the space you have left, just make one big
> partiton that you can use for isos, mp3s, movies, pictures, whatever. I
> mount that one as /data
>
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 08:53:08PM -0700, Miles Beck wrote:
> >
> > I am installing Debian linux on my machine and wanted to know the
optimal
> > disk usage for the various partitions.
> >
> > I have about 33 gig of unpartionted space.
> >
> > What size would be good for the following partitions?
> >
> > /home - do I even need a home directory if this is a one user system?
> > /var
> > /tmp
> > /root
> > /boot - the boot partition I made 8 megabytes.
> > /swap - the swap partition I made 512 megabytes.
> > /usr
> >
> > I installed this earlier and did not make the /usr partition big enough
and
> > then could not install all the packages.
> >
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