Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 23:33:21 +0200 From: "Olivier Cortes" <olivier.cortes@free.fr> To: <Peter.McGarvey@telinco.net> Cc: "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org> Subject: RE: BSD Theology: swap, /var, /tmp and /usr/tmp Message-ID: <EJEFLAEIHOBBKCGOKMJJKECOCBAA.olivier.cortes@free.fr> In-Reply-To: <390F41FD.5880279E@telinco.net>
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okay. i'm an old linux man, and a new BSD mn, but an advised admin: "imagine all the people"... receiving mail and mail and mail... (/var/mail/) "and take at me now" (/tmp is speaking) when a silly user launch a netscape core dumping, or a bugged recursive program (sometimes like mine ;) ) that fills a file becoming even bigger and nobody sees it... your /usr is going to be filled with a mess, and if the admin is not here (coffee perhaps ?), the system will be "satured" (i don't remember the word, sorry... i'm french) and will not be able to do anything more (forking processes (servers) won't because "can't write pid file" and so on). so think of putting /var/ and /tmp/ on separate partitions, it COULD be sometimes a right thing to do. someone wants to say something else ? i'm open source free minded. Olivier Cortes Deep Ocean Administrator olive@deep-ocean.net http://www.deep-ocean.net/ (very slow, it's on the french cable, sorry) > -----Message d'origine----- > De : owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]De la part de Peter McGarvey > Envoyé : mardi 2 mai 2000 23:01 > À : FREEBSD-Questions > Objet : BSD Theology: swap, /var, /tmp and /usr/tmp > > > Theological problem this. Facts and Opinions welcome... > > Okay, I /think/ I know what I'm doing when I slice-up a disk for a > FreeBSD system... > > / -> 64MB > swap -> 2 * memory (rounded-up to the nearest MB) > /usr -> the remaining disk > > Once setup I link /var and /tmp to /usr/var and /usr/temp > > This is the way I've always done it, I'm quite happy doing it this way, > it works for me and I've never had any problems. > > Fine, but now some upstart has asked me to set up a FreeBSD system with > the following.... > > / -> 5MB > swap 1 -> 512MB (equal to memory) > swap 2 -> 512MB > /var -> 2GB > /tmp -> 2GB > /usr -> remaining disk > > My first instinct is that the guy is barking mad (he is a Linux groupie > so... (and Linux does have a nasty habit of apropriating every entry in > the partition table)) > > However I've hit a snag - when it comes to FreeBSD partitions and slices > I know the HOW (and there is lot's of help on that), but I'm not too > sure of the WHY (and help here is lacking). > > 1. What I need is some rational reasoning why the way I do > things is right/wrong. > > 2. Why the way Linux man wants it is right/wrong. > > 3. Some info on the optimal size of swap > > 4. Where's the best place to put /var and /tmp > > Here is what I was told... > > On the issue of the 2 swap I was told two swap partitions were needed as > "we may need to turn one off as too much swap will slow the machine > down". > > Furthermore, I was told the 2*memory rule is no longer valid "once the > physical memory has exceeded 64MB" Can this true? Have I needlessly > been waisting mt HDD space by making swap too big? > > My thoughts were that swap was used as needed, when needed, and that > pages are not swapped to disk on a whim just because the swap space > existed (or perhaps this is how linux works so he's assuming FreeBSD > does it this way too). > > As for /var and /tmp why not link them to /usr/var and /usr/tmp. I can > understand putting them on physically seperate devices. But is it > strictly necissary to put them in their own slice? Is there a > performance benefit? or a is there some extra resiliency? > > Whilst I'm at it what is the difference between /tmp and /usr/tmp. I've > always treated them a seperate entities - assuming linking /tmp to > /usr/tmp was a bad thing. Linux man maligned FreeBSD big time when he > found there were two temporary directories. I couldn't respond as I > didn't know - and I refused to descent to his level by insulting his > prefered OS. > > Like I said this is mainly a theological problem. so all Facts and > Opinions welcome... > > > -- > TTFN, FNORD > > Peter McGarvey, Unix Administrator > Network Operations Center, Telinco Limited > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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