HD partitions?

Benjamin Scott dragonhawk at iname.com
Wed Jun 15 21:38:01 EDT 2005


On Jun 15 at 6:25pm, Peter wrote:
> I am new to Linux, and by new I mean that I have yet to install it, but that 
> will be happening shortly.  Anyway, I was hoping to get suggestions on 
> partition sizes.  I have a 200GB HD. This system will be small, maybe three 
> or four home users, and may or may not be used as an web server (assume that 
> it will be, I suppose).  Your thoughts?

   With a modern system, there are no technical requirements that mandate 
multiple filesystem partitions.  You can have one giant partition for all 
files.  There are reasons to split things up, but they are heavy on the tech 
stuff, depend mostly on how the system will be used, and involve a fair bit of 
personal preference.

   Swap: Unless you have, say, a gig of RAM (and possibly even then), you will 
want a swap partition.  Linux's "swap" is what MS Windows calls a "page file". 
As Kevin said, there is an old rule of thumb that said "swap should be twice 
RAM", but just how valid that is these days is questionable.  Still, it's as 
good a guess as any, with a maximum swap size of maybe 1 GB for most systems.

   Since you're just getting started, I'd say stick with just one filesystem 
partition and one swap partition.  Worry about getting fancy later.

   If you'd rather get fancy now, here's my personal opinions (again, this is 
heavy on tech, some of it fairly esoteric):

   I like to keep my root filesystem separate and relatively small.  I keep my 
boot files and essential system stuff on the root.  (The idea of having a 
separate partition for the boot files is a holdover from when LILO couldn't 
see the whole disk and you had to, and I don't subscribe to it anymore.)  The 
idea of a separate root is itself perhaps a holdover, but one I'm still 
attached to.  As I mentioned, personal preference plays a role.  I can make 
some technical arguments for it, but they're pretty weak, really.

   I make /usr a separate filesystem, and reserve it stuff installed by the 
distribution and/or under package management (i.e., RPM).  This is a partition 
I can ignore for purposes of backup or reinstall.

   I make /var a separate filesystem, to minimize fragmentation and other 
problems associated with so much data churn.  For certain kinds of systems 
(e.g., mail servers, web servers, etc.), I might create additional partitions 
for /var/log, /var/spool, and so on.  Again, it depends on the environment.

   I make /usr/local a separate filesystem.  This is where all local work goes. 
This is what needs to be backed up most often.  Software installed using 
traditional methods like "make install" goes here.  I symlink /opt into 
/usr/local/opt to make it part of this.

   For some purposes, I create separate partitions for /home and/or files 
shared in the organization.  For smaller systems, these might just by symlinks 
into /usr/local as well.

-- 
Ben <dragonhawk at iname.com>



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