[Tfug] opinion on the proper/minimum size for Root

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, John,

--- John Mc <jmcneill2 at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I've finished putting Kubuntu 7.04 on an older Dell
> notebook with a 10 GB HDD.
> I have both / and /home partitions. Root (/)
> currently has files totaling 3400 MB.
> What is your opinion on the proper/minimum size for
> Root:
> 
> On this hardware (No burning option on the optical
> drive)?
> 
> On any hardware such as most modern 'puters?
> 
> Reasons?

I tend to use *many* partitions.  As a minimum,
/, /usr, /var, /home.  Invariably, I add /usr/local
and/or /usr/pkg (NetBSD likes "addons" to reside
under /usr/pkg).  And, often a /Scratch that acts
as a giant playpen for me.

Reasons:  I want / to be as small as possible.
It includes /bin, /stand, /etc, etc. -- the sorts
of things that I will *need* to have available to
me if the disk crashes.  By contrast, /usr has
more "advanced" utilities -- and takes up a fair bit
more space!

Note that /usr (excluding /usr/{local,pkg}) isn't
going to *grow* once I have finished installing the
system.  So, I can trim the partition (slice?) down
to just fit its needs.

OTOH, /var grows regularly so putting it on its
own partition lets me limit just how much of
my media it grabs (e.g., /var/crash) before I am
reminded of how greedy it can be.

/home is where "normal users" play so I can size that
based on the needs of those users.

Some OS's let /tmp use swap space so that growth
risk is managed with ample swap.

In the past, I have created trimmed down systems
where "everything" was under / -- but only those
things that were absolutely necessary.  *Then*,
I would mount these other filesystems OVER their
counterparts on the root filesystem.  E.g., I
would have portions of the /usr hierarchy on the
/ partition (like key parts of /usr/lib, /usr/bin,
/usr/sbin -- including vi, etc.).  Then, I would
mount the *real* /usr on top of this trimmed down
/usr.

So, if I boot single-user with just / mounted, I
have access to many *more* tools than I would have
normally (with /usr *not* available).  I could then
patch the system and mount all of the remaining
partitions on top of these mount points (rendering
their contents inaccessible -- but, those contents
have now been replaced by their *real* contents
in the proper "/usr", "/var", etc.

(Sorry, I may not have been clear enough in this
explanation  :<  )

HTH,
--don
single user


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