[CLUE-Tech] Cleaning /var when it gets too full

[Jed S. Baer]

On 16 Sep 2002 08:57:34 -0600
Ed Hill <ed at eh3.com> wrote:

> but I'd like to point out that by giving yourself a separate and *small*
> /var partition, you're painting yourself into a corner.  Why so small? 
> And why give /var its own partition?
> 
> Here are some suggestions:
> 
>   1) If you have limited disk space, then don't go splitting it 
>      into lots of tiny partitions.  It makes the little space 
>      that you do have even less usable.  For most folks (that is
>      desktops and development boxes, not servers) I recommend the
>      following simple setup:
> 
>        /       ==>  3+ Gb
>        /home   ==>  as much as you need
>        swap    ==>  2X RAM
>      
>      that both makes efficient use of the disk(s) and allows one 
>      to easily upgrade (or completely re-install) the OS without
>      over-writing the user data in the /home partition.

I'd recommend a seperate /tmp as well. Also, a seperate /var can be a good
thing, because mail and spool live there, and you can bring your system to
a dead halt by filling up / when var is just a directory under it. I saw
it happen on a production box once. I don't remember whether it was some
print job gone whacko, or flooded with mail. I've seen /tmp fill up too.
Yeah, it doesn't happen much on a home machine. In fact, thinking about
it, probably a seperate /var is more important than a seperate /tmp, if
you're going to worry about such things.

Of course, YMMV. It all depends upon how you use your home box.

jed
-- 
We're frogs who are getting boiled in a pot full of single-character
morphemes, and we don't notice. - Larry Wall; Perl6, Apocalypse 5