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Date:      Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:10:00 -0800
From:      "Robison, Dave" <david.robison@fisglobal.com>
To:        <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: One or Four?
Message-ID:  <4F3EEC58.1000308@fisglobal.com>
In-Reply-To: <290E977C-E361-4C7D-8F1E-C1D6D03BAD63@mac.com>
References:  <4F3ECF23.5000706@fisglobal.com>	<20120217234623.cf7e169c.freebsd@edvax.de>	<20120217225329.GB30014@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>	<021101ccedc9$89445cf0$9bcd16d0$@fisglobal.com> <290E977C-E361-4C7D-8F1E-C1D6D03BAD63@mac.com>

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On 02/17/2012 15:55, Chuck Swiger wrote:
>
> Yes.  It works as intended even when /tmp is part of a single root partition; although mounting /tmp as a RAM- or swap-based tmpfs filesystem might be better for many situations.

Sure it has its uses, but now you're jumping into new territory where 
the installer has to either ask the user to create tmpfs or make the 
decision to do it on its own. As has been stated, this is fine if 
sufficient RAM is available. Personally I don't like using RAM for tmp.


>> Making this world-writable bucket part of "/" seems silly both for Desktops and Servers alike.
> You're welcome to your opinion.  However, I suspect you're expecting FreeBSD systems to always be partitioned and administered by knowledgeable BSD Unix sysadmins, and those are not always so readily available as one might assume.
>

I'm not sure why someone has to be knowledgeable to select a particular 
partitioning scheme. Is it better for a novice to have one big / to fill 
up as opposed to a separate /var or /tmp?

>> b. A nuisance
>>
>> As "Da Rock" points out, ... recovering your system from a
>> file-system-full-event when using "single-/" is just as difficult regardless of
>> Desktop versus Server. Having "/tmp" alleviates the difficulty.
> It would if /tmp was mounted on a disk partition, and if it also happened to be where space was being consumed.  /var/log and /home tend to be more likely locations in my experience, but YMMV.
>

Actually, in my experience I have huge problems with users misusing /tmp 
as a holding spot for all manner of files. I like keeping /tmp separate 
and smallish to discourage its use for everyday transfers. Those things 
belong in a users home directory, not in /tmp.


>
> However, for whatever reasons, the overwhelming majority of folks using MacOS X don't have problems using a single root partition, and while they sometimes do fill up their disks, that's a situation which they should be able to recover from without needing expert assistance.  I don't recall having unusual issues in running a partition out of space under FreeBSD, either, or difficulty fixing things afterwards-- but such doesn't happen very often if you monitor your systems properly, and have time to respond to "low-space" conditions before they turn into "out of space" conditions.
>
> Regards,

Previously you said that knowledgeable unix admins aren't as common as 
might be thought... now you're making the assumption that these same 
novice users will monitor their systems properly for low-space 
conditions. In a perfect world we all have snmp running properly or some 
other way to notify us of impending doom. In the real world these things 
always seem to sneak up and bite us on the behind.

However this is all superfluous conversation if the installer gives each 
user a variety of options. You can select your "one big partition" 
scheme or go with multiple partitions depending on your preference, and 
from what I've read so far, this seems to be not only a reasonable idea, 
but also one which many people would prefer.

Dave


-- 
Dave Robison
Sales Solution Architect II
FIS Banking Solutions
510/621-2089 (w)
530/518-5194 (c)
510/621-2020 (f)
daver@vicor.com
david.robison@fisglobal.com

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