Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 18:26:29 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: list-freebsd@fsck.net (Eugene Lee) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: resizing partitions in the same slice Message-ID: <200403122326.i2CNQT820905@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20040312230210.GC16477@Dark-Age.local> from "Eugene Lee" at Mar 12, 2004 05:02:10 PM
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> On Fri, Mar 12, 2004 at 02:22:21PM -0500, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> : Eugene Lee asked:
> : >
> : > /dev/da0s1g 2064302 1464672 434486 77% /usr
> : > /dev/da0s1h 10660096 720 9806570 0% /data
> : >
> : > I almost run out of space during a buildworld, so I'd like to expand
> : > /usr from 2 GB to 4 GB by taking space away from /data.
> [...]
> : > So my procedure to do this is to recalculate the size/offset/cylinder
> : > settings for my partitions "g" & "h", change those settings via
> : > disklabel(8), then use growfs(8) on /dev/da0s1g? Seems simple enough,
> : > and the data on /usr should be preserved, correct?
> :
> : Yes and no. I do not think you can shrink a partition with these.
> : Since, in order to grow /dev/da0s1g you will have to shrink /dev/da0s1h
> : I think you cannot do what you want. I may well be wrong on this.
> : I haven't tried it.
>
> I'm a little surprised. I would think that resizing partitions is a
> common request, that the idea of growing one partition while shrinking
> another is not a new or rare notion. Can anyone else share their views
> or experiences? The list archives contain few comments on the subject.
I can't answer to that very much. I have always managed disk size by
moving things around and making symlinks as I described. Some people
don't even have separate /usr and /var partitions. They just include
them in one large partition (often /usr actually or sometimes /home)
along with everything else and then they don't have to worry about
how to size things other than just getting enough disk overall.
What I suggested is sort of in between - by moving those directories
in /usr that tend to grow a lot in to the big grab-all partition.
> BTW, some places have recommended commercial solution like Norton Ghost
> or Partition Magic. Do these products work on FreeBSD's UFS format and
> grok partitions-in-a-slice?
Partition Magic only manipulates slices and does not know anything
about partitions within slices - especially FreeBSD partitions.
I would guess that Norton is the same because it is made for Microsloth
environments. UFS wouldn't have anything to do with it - that comes
later with newfs.
> [...symlinking /usr/{ports,local,src} to elsewhere...]
> :
> : This should give you back quite a lot of your /usr file system
> : Although ports, local and src are the usual hogs, you may need
> : to use du in the /usr directory to find out what else is taking
> : lots of space if these aren't the ones. Do you have a bunch of
> : home directories there or are you making them in /data for example.
>
> I have /usr/home, and other stuff in /data. I guess I could always
> symlink /usr/src to /data/src when doing a buildworld. Drats.
>
> : > But will /dev/da0s1h be okay? Is editing the disklabel enough? Or do I
> : > need to reformat the partition --- and, if so, how? I'm not too comfy
> : > using newfs(8) directly. Can I just run "newfs /dev/da0s1h" after
> : > running the growfs(8) command and it will use the disklabel settings?
> : > Or can I be a wuss and use /stand/sysinstall? :-)
> :
> : Editing the disklabel will change the partition sizes.
> : Definitely /dev/da0s1h will be messed up. Running newfs on it
> : will build a new filesystem in whatever is now that partition.
>
> Got it. I figured as much, but it's always good to get other opinions.
> Jerry, thanks for the feedback!
>
Have fun,
////jerry
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