| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
annalissa
Guest
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:31 am Post subject: /var and /usr |
 |
|
Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ? |
|
| |
|
 Back to top |
Grant
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:55 am Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:50:06 +0200, François Patte <francois.patte@mi.parisdescartes.fr> wrote:
| Quote: | Le 14.10.2008 08:31, annalissa a écrit :
Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
|
And /usr may be mounted read-only.
Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.id.au/ |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
François Patte
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:55 am Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
Le 14.10.2008 08:31, annalissa a écrit :
| Quote: | Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
|
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
--
François Patte
Université Paris Descartes |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
The Natural Philosopher
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
François Patte wrote:
| Quote: | Le 14.10.2008 08:31, annalissa a écrit :
Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
Yes. /var is for /variable/ data. Logs and often databases live there. |
So it can grow and possibly exceed limits: having it separate from the
parts that are necessary for recovery from such a state, means you CAN
recover.. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Mark Hobley
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:15 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
Grant <g_r_a_n_t_@dodo.com.au> wrote:
| Quote: | And /usr may be mounted read-only.
|
And /var may be mounted noexec.
Mark.
--
Mark Hobley,
393 Quinton Road West,
Quinton, BIRMINGHAM.
B32 1QE. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Andrew Halliwell
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
annalissa <aarklon@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
|
Because the root "/" filesystem should never be allowed to fill up.
If it does, all kinds of nastiness can occur.
And var is one of the partitions on which programs dump their data,
especially e-mail and news, web proxies, log files, etc.
It's a safeguard.
--
| spike1@freenet.co.uk | "I'm alive!!! I can touch! I can taste! |
| Andrew Halliwell BSc | I can SMELL!!! KRYTEN!!! Unpack Rachel and |
| in | get out the puncture repair kit!" |
| Computer Science | Arnold Judas Rimmer- Red Dwarf | |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Unruh
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:09 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
annalissa <aarklon@gmail.com> writes:
| Quote: | Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
|
Many things are said. Not all are sensible.
Anyway, /var/ is written to. /usr is in general not. So /var can fill up. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Unruh
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois_Patte?= <francois.patte@mi.parisdescartes.fr> writes:
| Quote: | Le 14.10.2008 08:31, annalissa a écrit :
Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
|
So what? /usr is not written to, and you can read from a full partition.
And /var is far more likely to fill up if it is on a separate partition
(that spare space on /usr is not available to it).
| Quote: | --
François Patte
Université Paris Descartes |
|
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Nico Kadel-Garcia
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:31 am Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
François Patte wrote:
| Quote: | Le 14.10.2008 08:31, annalissa a écrit :
Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
|
And /var/spool/mail, /var/spool/news, /var/spool/mqueue and /var/tmp/. Any of
those may be overflowed quite badly.
The separation of /var also goes back to the days of much smaller disks, when
a modest mail spool would be wise to put on a separate disk or partition. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Keith Keller
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:50 am Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
On 2008-10-14, Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
| Quote: | =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois_Patte?= <francois.patte@mi.parisdescartes.fr> writes:
For instance: /var is the place where logs are written, suppose some
process becomes mad and fill the partition with logs....
So what? /usr is not written to, and you can read from a full partition.
And /var is far more likely to fill up if it is on a separate partition
(that spare space on /usr is not available to it).
|
That's just the reason to separate /var from the rest of the filesystem.
One reason to separate /usr from the rest of the filesystem is to make
upgrades easier; you can mke2fs the /usr partition to wipe all vestiges
of old binaries clean and start fresh. (Grant already mentioned another
reason, the ability to mount /usr read-only.)
--keith
--
kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt
see X- headers for PGP signature information |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
John Hasler
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
keith writes:
| Quote: | That's just the reason to separate /var from the rest of the filesystem.
|
Another reason is to eliminate write activity on the partition containing
/usr thereby increasing reliability.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
Michael Paoli
Guest
|
| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject: Re: /var and /usr |
|
|
On Oct 13, 10:31 pm, annalissa <aarklon@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Why is it said that /var should reside on a separate partition from /
usr ?
|
How about an example and some reference documentation:
$ mount | awk '{if($3=="/"||$3=="/usr"||$3=="/var")print;}'
/dev/hda5 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/vg00/lvol1 on /usr type reiserfs (ro,nodev,noatime)
/dev/vg00/lvol2 on /var type reiserfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
$
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEROOTFILESYSTEM
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEUSRHIERARCHY
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEVARHIERARCHY
Once you've studied those, hopefully you'll have the answer to your
question. |
|
| |
|
| Back to top |
|
