From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 29 20:53:25 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 730FC1065674 for ; Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:53:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from eric@vangyzen.net) Received: from aussmtpmrkps320.us.dell.com (aussmtpmrkps320.us.dell.com [143.166.224.254]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4157A8FC1A for ; Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:53:24 +0000 (UTC) X-Loopcount0: from 64.238.244.148 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.75,339,1330927200"; d="scan'208";a="526125190" Received: from mail.compellent.com ([64.238.244.148]) by aussmtpmrkps320.us.dell.com with ESMTP; 29 Mar 2012 15:52:16 -0500 Message-ID: <4F74CB80.2030207@vangyzen.net> Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:52:16 -0500 From: Eric van Gyzen User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:6.0) Gecko/20110816 Thunderbird/6.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: David Wolfskill , current@freebsd.org References: <4F746F1E.6090702@mail.zedat.fu-berlin.de> <4F74BCE8.2030802@vangyzen.net> <20120329195800.GH1709@albert.catwhisker.org> In-Reply-To: <20120329195800.GH1709@albert.catwhisker.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: Re: Using TMPFS for /tmp and /var/run? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:53:25 -0000 On 03/29/2012 14:58, David Wolfskill wrote: > On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 02:50:00PM -0500, Eric van Gyzen wrote: >> ... >> However, if you always want to use tmpfs instead of stable storage, >> please do not. Some people expect /tmp to be persistent. This is why >> /etc/defaults/rc.conf has clear_tmp_enable="NO". Changing this would >> break the POLA. >> ... > > Errr... I'm not sure why folks might have that misguided expectation; Because that's how the default installation has behaved for a long time. I'm not saying this expectation is /wise/; I'm just saying some people have formed that expectation by observing the behavior of the default system, and they would be astonished by this change. > from hier(7): > > /tmp/ temporary files that are not guaranteed to persist across sys- > tem reboots > > Foplks are welcome to do whatever they wish with their own machines, > but the FreeBSD default is as above. Respectfully, no. The default is to store /tmp in UFS, either in its own partition (with Auto Defaults) or in / (if no partition was created for it), and to refrain from clearing it at boot. Thus, although /tmp is not guaranteed to persist in theory, it is rather persistent in practice. My only point is: carefully consider the change in behavior of the default installation before breaking the POLA. Eric