Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Need partitioning opinions.
Message-ID: <3023@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 91 19:38:01 GMT
References: <1991Jan21.224520.27427@iitmax.iit.edu> <673@hitachi.uucp>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 41

In article <673@hitachi.uucp> jon@hitachi.UUCP (Jon Ryshpan) writes:

| I can't see any advantage to several partitions beyond the seperating
| root and everything else.  Under BSD, you can back up by partition;
| this can speed backups up if you put static stuff on some of the
| partitions.  But this doesn't apply to backups under sysv.

  Is there some reason you wouldn't do the same thing in sysv? I've been
running my three systems that way for about four years now, and would do
it any other way.

| If you are afraid that your news spool directory can get out of
| control, you *may* want to put it on a seperate partition so that it
| can fill its own partition and not the whole drive.  But I don't
| recommend this.

  Having had news eat the system once, I now keep it in a cage. If it
runs out of space or inodes it doesn't take the rest of the machine with
it. And if you have guest users I would give them a partition, too, so
they don't get carried away and run me out of something useful, like
tmp.

Some things I would always put in separate partitions:
	root
	/u		or whatever you use for regular users
Things which are candidates depending on usage:
	/usr/spool	if lots of uucp and news feeds
	/usr/spool/news	inodes and total size limits
	/tmp		for extra inodes
	/usr/local	if you have a lot of local stuff
	/guest		or whatever you call your courtesy

  My rule of thumb is that partitions don't allow you to use every last
byte, but do make system administration easier, and allow easier
movement of stuff from one system to another. They are useful to keep
badly behaved applications in check.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me