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Date:      Tue, 12 May 1998 15:34:08 -0500
From:      MIKE JENKINS <jenkins.mike@epamail.epa.gov>
To:        grog@lemis.com
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Multiple partitions per disk (was: Writable /usr?)
Message-ID:  <s5586c31.049@wpmail.gbr.epa.gov>

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Greg,

I think "we are mixing apples and oranges".  The multiple partitions
I am talking about are the OS partitions not the user partitions (/home).
I agree that a single partition per disk for non-OS stuff is a good idea.

The question is "How do you set up the OS partitions for installation?".
By default, a 4.4BSD install wants a /, swap, /var, and /usr and this is
spelled out in "Installing and Operating 4.4BSD UNIX". You could minimize
this and have a /, swap, and /usr (like SunOS 4.X) where /var lives in /
(or symlink /var to /usr/var after the install).  You could also minimize
this and have a / and swap where /var and /usr live in /.

I like a small /, a MFS /tmp, a separate /var, and a read-only /usr.
If I want to build the OS, I'll use a separate /usr/src filesystem.
You like a small / and a large /usr for the rest of the OS.

See below and also http://www.BSDI.COM/support/misc/disk-layout.

Mike

Piece from "Installing and Operating 4.4BSD UNIX":

...
The  filesystem  in 4.4BSD has been reorganized in an effort
to meet several goals:
1)   The root filesystem should be small.
2)   There should be a per-architecture  centrally-shareable
     read-only /usr filesystem.
3)   Variable per-machine directories should be concentrated
     below a single mount point named /var.
4)   Site-wide  machine  independent  shareable  text  files
     should  be  separated from architecture specific binary
     files and should be concentrated below a  single  mount
     point named /usr/share.
These goals are realized with the following general layouts.
The reorganized root filesystem has the  following  directo-
ries:

/etc     (config files)
/bin     (user binaries needed when single-user)
/sbin    (root binaries needed when single-user)
/local   (locally added binaries used only by this machine)
/tmp     (mount point for memory based filesystem)
/dev     (local devices)
/home    (mount point for AMD)
/var     (mount point for per-machine variable directories)
/usr     (mount point for multiuser binaries and files)

The  reorganized  /usr filesystem has the following directo-
ries:

/usr/bin       (user binaries)
/usr/contrib   (software contributed to 4.4BSD)
/usr/games     (binaries for games, score files in /var)
/usr/include   (standard include files)
/usr/lib       (lib*.a from old /usr/lib)
/usr/libdata   (databases from old /usr/lib)
/usr/libexec   (executables from old /usr/lib)
/usr/local     (locally added binaries used site-wide)
/usr/old       (deprecated binaries)
/usr/sbin      (root binaries)
/usr/share     (mount point for site-wide shared text)
/usr/src       (mount point for sources)

The reorganized  /usr/share  filesystem  has  the  following
directories:

/usr/share/calendar     (various useful calendar files)
/usr/share/dict         (dictionaries)
/usr/share/doc          (4.4BSD manual sources)
/usr/share/games        (games text files)
/usr/share/groff_font   (groff font information)
/usr/share/man          (typeset manual pages)
/usr/share/misc         (dumping ground for random text files)
/usr/share/mk           (templates for 4.4BSD makefiles)
/usr/share/skel         (template user home directory files)
/usr/share/tmac         (various groff macro packages)
/usr/share/zoneinfo     (information on time zones)

The  reorganized  /var filesystem has the following directo-
ries:

/var/account        (accounting files, formerly /usr/adm)
/var/at             (at(1) spooling area)
/var/backups        (backups of system files)
/var/crash          (crash dumps)
/var/db             (system-wide databases, e.g. tags)
/var/games          (score files)
/var/log            (log files)
/var/mail           (users mail)
/var/obj            (hierarchy to build /usr/src)
/var/preserve       (preserve area for vi)
/var/quotas         (directory to store quota files)
/var/run            (directory to store *.pid files)
/var/rwho           (rwho databases)
/var/spool/ftp      (home directory for anonymous ftp)
/var/spool/mqueue   (sendmail spooling directory)
/var/spool/news     (news spooling area)
/var/spool/output   (printer spooling area)
/var/spool/uucp     (uucp spooling area)
/var/tmp            (disk-based temporary directory)
/var/users          (root of per-machine user home directories)
...





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