[Tfug] my /usr and /var are huge

[Brian Murphy]

Quoting "Charles R. Kiss" <charles at kissbrothers.com>:
> I have like three har d har hard drives; do I just move the data around
> and repartition on the same drive as / for separate /usr /var partitions
> (I'll figure out how to do that); or can I just copy the data sets to
> another drive with /usr /var directories and sym-link from the /
> partition (that's on a separate drive)? Do I sacrifice speed,  energy,
> error, all of the above?
> I have no clue.  I just know my  / partition is getting huge.
>


I'm not 100% clear on what your filesystem layout looks today.  It
sounds like you have one large root (/) partition that everything lives
under.  Your options as I see them:

1) Partition your other drives to the size you need for /usr and /var
and actually mount these partitions as /usr and /var.  /var can be hard
to move due to open files.  Before I did this, I would make sure that
these 2 subtrees are the problem.  If, for example, you had a ton of
large files under /home, mount a new drive for /home instead.  When it
works, don't forget to add lines to /etc/fstab or you'll have a
surprise when you reboot. :)

2) Symlinks.  They won't noticably slow you down as long as you don't
over do it.(100s of links to get to a file)  They are the worst option
for long term system maintainability.

3) Look at LVM for dynamic partition resizing.  Be careful here when
mapping physical devices to logical devices.  I would feel uneasy about
striping physical partitions if I cared about my data.


Brian

The opinions or statements expressed herein are my own and should not be
taken as a position, opinion, or endorsement of the University of
Arizona.