/var partition too small ... what to do ?

siliconmike wrote:

>But I'd like to put things in /var on remote server, without touching
>my config files.

that's asking for trouble.

>Would hard-linking work without flaw ?

hardlinks only work on the same device.

>Would there be a performance issue in case of hard-linking ?

no.

mkb.
 >> Stay informed about: /var partition too small ... what to do ? 

In article ,
siliconmike wrote:
>I'm dealing with umpteen number of config files, crons etc.. all which
>point to directories in /usr partition.

>Is there an alternative to hard linking, so that my data directories of
>/usr are physically located in /var ?

Use symlinks. I do that for some things that would totally fill
/var.

>Or what if I change the physical sequence of /usr and /var on the
>remote server, while setting it up ? (Since our aim is to put varying
>data on disk edge)..

>Comments ?

Use the symlinks and you don't have to do much at all.

You can take the original /var/something and move it to
/var/something.orig, make a directory on /usr and then make
a symlink of /var/something point to /usr/something.

If you already have a lot of things in /var/something, do the
above, but after making the sylinks move the files from the /var
system to the /usr system.

Bill

>Matthias Buelow wrote:
>> siliconmike wrote:
>>
>> >But I'd like to put things in /var on remote server, without touching
>> >my config files.
>>
>> that's asking for trouble.
>>
>> >Would hard-linking work without flaw ?
>>
>> hardlinks only work on the same device.
>>
>> >Would there be a performance issue in case of hard-linking ?
>>
>> no.
>>
>> mkb.
>


--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com
 >> Stay informed about: /var partition too small ... what to do ? 

1. Mount /var on a dedicated HDD. You can probably get a 3-8GB drive on
eBay for less than $15. If using IDE, place the disk on the secondary
controller if possible.

2. Run fdisk, disklabel and newfs on the new disk, then mount it on
/mnt.

3. # cd /mnt ; dump 0af - /var | restore xf -

Note - all of this info is in the Handbook, FAQ, and Man pages.

Regards,
Pachl
 >> Stay informed about: /var partition too small ... what to do ? 

siliconmike wrote:
>Unfortunately the freebsd handbook told me to make the /var partition
>un-reasonably small (256 mb)..

The handbook reflects legacy practices that have not been a good
idea for over a decade.

>So I have all of my data + scripts on /usr partition on a localhost
>instead of /var. And All config files are set up to find stuff in /usr.

This is typical of the problems caused by partitioning the root
volume where it is not explicitly required. On average, this sort
of diskfull problem occurs an order of magnitude more often on
partitioned systems than systems with a single root partition
(assuming a single disk).

You can always workaround with symlink, diskformat, ... however,
doing so both ignores the cause of the problem and compounds it.
The best way to fix these problems is usually to reinstall _without_
/usr, /var, or other intra-disk or root-mounted partitions.

--
Roger Marquis
http://www.roble.net/marquis/
 >> Stay informed about: /var partition too small ... what to do ? 

Roger Marquis writes:

>The best way to fix these problems is usually to reinstall _without_
>/usr, /var, or other intra-disk or root-mounted partitions.

I agree that for someone who's never setup Unix systems it's easier to
go with one big partition.
However, if nothing else, you'd want a seperate /home partition,
though, for backup purposes (although I somehow doubt that a newbie
does backups.)

mkb.
 >> Stay informed about: /var partition too small ... what to do ?