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

[Matt Gushee]

On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 09:15:57AM -0600, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> > 
> >   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.

Not if you get it right ;-) Of course, you'll probably get it wrong the
first few times. I've always used several partitions, and have now got
it almost down to a science. But it took a couple years of trial and
error to figure out how much space I needed in each partition.

> >        /       ==>  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.

Of course, in theory, that should never happen. But if you're concerned
about the slight possibility of it happening, then you should probably
also be concerned about it happening to /usr/local and /usr/src, if you
have any stuff there. Perhaps more importantly, if you use a
partition-based backup method, it makes some sense to have /usr/local
and /usr/src separate, because if you have your distribution CDs, you
may not really need to back up /usr at all--unless it is the same
partition that contains the hard-to-replace stuff in /usr/local and
/usr/src.

But as Jed said:

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

Larz Wirzenius's _Linux System Administrator's Guide_ has some good info
on partitions and how to allocate disk space:

  http://www.tldp.org/LDP/sag/x1675.html

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee at havenrock.com
http://www.havenrock.com/