From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 28 12:11:47 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED73A16A419 for ; Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:11:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from donald.teed@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A9A4613C46E for ; Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:11:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from donald.teed@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id i29so1057239wxd.7 for ; Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:11:46 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=YvRyEihj+SfOBIJZkvEYwISkvmwmmSHGb01RrUWq2V4=; b=t0//FcvZ39E1xY+I14TkcOUqnNV4xi7FUZ48Tt8tUvpxyybFUAVXsjmjP1GKxNMjJIWucKev15UJ7Ek0tB4cGEiEyj3SBhjrJkKPzt9ANdQblb6SIeR+fj9OVkTk9z7nr7VRZ8FLVUKdQfh5kP4hBB0I9RqKilLjoJq+6uc0FJs= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=DaVkZ0iLA4Or6IVWMDL+gmGtlK7HiKleK82U10eUrvFiYYmX6qPKgC9eNJYHp8goDfLbtOKzSjjS5t3QJqQm4G2SlfD70AkkepQuBE+RvFh8yKmolwFVeOtKmWquh7Eueb9fR0g7tQpZaH+HDaTi8epMJY+mmaTXN2m7C5wx6cA= Received: by 10.142.50.15 with SMTP id x15mr2194138wfx.169.1201520693244; Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:44:53 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.142.237.19 with HTTP; Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:44:53 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:44:53 -0400 From: "D G Teed" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <479DA0EF.8090609@math.arizona.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <479D6E97.6060100@gmx.net> <20080128090005.V1235@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <479DA0EF.8090609@math.arizona.edu> Subject: Re: suggested size of /var/mail X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:11:48 -0000 No one qualified the context of the question. Not the OP, nor the answers. Amateurs are you all? Details, details, details!!!!! Is this for home, or for a hobby site, or the real world? What is the volume of use? What sort of server is it - MX, apache, database server, America's Army run in Linux compatibility mode, etc.? No one can answer partitioning without knowing what you are doing, and where. If it is a personal server, with very few or only one user on it, then you might not even need a separate partition for /var. If it is a production server of some sort, strongly related to that gray cloud Internet thing, then having a different partition for /var which can fill up with space or inodes and you can still login to the system is the best way to go. I've seen /var fill up a few times on various servers and this is a good measure for a vat that can take the excess and then stop. Anyone who says they never seen a problem with this has not run something like a web server for more than 3 years in the real world (by this, I mean a domain name that people around the world know of). As for how big, no one can guess. You have to think about it. If you've never done this install before, perhaps you'll need to do it twice to get the partitioning right. It certainly isn't like Solaris, where the copies of every patch you've ever applied are archived for eternity, consuming up to 6GB or more. --Donald