Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]


Groups > comp.os.linux.hardware > #3145

Re: maximum number of partitions

From Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.hardware
Subject Re: maximum number of partitions
Followup-To comp.os.linux.hardware
Date 2016-06-06 16:48 +0200
Organization A noiseless patient Strider
Message-ID <nj42fd$dfa$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References (14 earlier) <nj1at0$i32$1@dont-email.me> <nj1ccf$96q$1@dont-email.me> <nj1sei$iho$1@dont-email.me> <87lh2j5mdw.fsf@hemphills.net> <nj4069$vl9$1@dont-email.me>

Followups directed to: comp.os.linux.hardware

Show all headers | View raw


On Monday 06 Jun 2016 16:09, Henrik Carlqvist conveyed the following to 
comp.os.linux.hardware...

> On Sun, 05 Jun 2016 17:58:03 -0400, Scott Hemphill wrote:
>> I would normally think of physical extents as the allocation unit for
>> a volume group.
> 
> Thanks also for this explanation and the example which followed!
> 
>> Voila!  I now had an 80GB root filesystem without rebooting
>> a production machine!
> 
> Yes, I see the point with being able to easily expand file systems on
> logical volumes. But IMHO the drawback of relying on this
> functionality is that it might tempt you to place almost your entire
> directory tree on a single file system.

Even without LVM, many people are tempted to do it that way, because 
most GNU/Linux users today come from the world of Microsoft Windows, and 
Windows installs everything in a single partition (and filesystem).  So 
does Apple OS X, by the way, even though technically ─ because of its 
UNIX roots ─ it should be able to set things up differently there.

> The importance of having a small root file system might not be as
> important today with journaled file systems as it once used to be, but
> I still think that it feels safe to know that I will most likely be
> able to boot to single user mode and fsck all other file systems in
> case of power outage.

You can still have the root filesystem on an LVM volume, provided that 
/boot is on a separate (and regular) partition ─ GRUB doesn't recognize 
an LVM, although LILO might work.

That said however, having a small root filesystem has become very hard 
these days due to all of the libraries and firmware blobs.  This is why 
RedHat and Fedora have begun implementing "the /usr move", where all of 
those libraries and all binaries from the root filesystem are now moved 
to under /usr ─ i.e. /bin, /lib{,64} and /sbin are now symbolic links to 
their counterparts under the /usr hierarchy.

> Also, when different directory trees gets filled up to 100% different
> kind of bad stuff will happen. If /var/log gets filled up you will no
> longer get any logs... If /home gets filled up you will no longer be
> able to start any new X applications... If / gets filled up you will
> no longer be able to mount or umount any file systems.
> 
> If all your directory trees lives in the same file system and that
> file system gets filled up all bad stuff will happen at once.
> 
> My own / partition is 510 MB and that also includes the /boot
> directory.

My root partition is 466 MiB, of which 369 MiB is in use.  I do have a 
separate /boot partition of 309 MiB, of which only 51 MiB is in use at 
the moment.

I've also got separate filesystems for /usr, /usr/local, /opt, /var, 
/srv, /srv/mmedia/movies, /home, plus that the contents of /tmp live on 
a tmpfs.  

Each of these filesystems is mounted with custom mount options.  For 
instance, /boot, /usr, /usr/local and /opt are mounted read-only at boot 
time.  The root filesystem is mounted read/write at boot time, but gets 
remounted read-only later on by rc.local because of two unrelated bugs 
which both write junk to the root directory.  /tmp is mounted with 
noexec, and everything except for /dev is mounted with nodev. /home is 
mounted with nosuid.

/root is a symlink to /home/root because there's a bug in the system so 
that if you boot up in (or drop down to) runlevel 1, then it doesn't use 
/root as the root user's home anyway ─ this is one of the two bugs which 
periodically cause junk to be written to the root directory ─ and 
instead it'll then use / as the superuser's home.  So there was no point 
in keeping /root on the root filesystem anymore, and this allows for the 
root filesystem to be remounted read-only after all of the other boot 
scripts have completed.

I don't have to drop down to runlevel 1 all that often, though.  My 
computer either way boots up to runlevel 3 and I start X manually after 
login, so I can get away with doing most administrative stuff from 
runlevel 3 without X running. ;)

Note: This is of course with a traditional sysvinit.  I know you're
      using Slackware, which has a BSD-style init, and distros with
      systemd will of course also have different runlevel
      implementations.

> My biggest partition is /var/images at 101G where I keep
> some iso- and hd- images I use with qemu.

My biggest partition is /home, with a 525 GiB capacity.  However, only 
5.6 GiB of that is currently in use.  I've put all of my multimedia 
stuff under /srv ─ that way, all user accounts have (read-only) access 
to it and I've also cleaned out all the .iso files that I used to keep 
under my $HOME.

-- 
= Aragorn =

         http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157

Back to comp.os.linux.hardware | Previous | NextPrevious in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread


Thread

maximum number of partitions Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-26 13:16 -0400
  Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-26 20:22 +0200
    Re: maximum number of partitions Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-26 16:02 -0400
      Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-26 21:02 +0000
        Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-27 00:36 +0200
        Re: maximum number of partitions Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-27 07:08 -0400
          Re: maximum number of partitions floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2016-05-27 04:03 -0800
            Re: maximum number of partitions Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-27 09:25 -0400
              Re: maximum number of partitions floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2016-05-27 05:53 -0800
                Re: maximum number of partitions Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-27 12:48 -0400
          Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-27 14:50 +0200
  Re: maximum number of partitions Vilmos Soti <vilmos@soti.ca> - 2016-05-26 12:40 -0700
  Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-26 22:29 +0200
    LVM [was: maximum number of partitions] Haines Brown <haines@engels.histomat.net> - 2016-05-27 07:44 -0400
      Re: LVM [was: maximum number of partitions] Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-27 18:07 +0200
  Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-05-26 22:27 +0100
    Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-27 06:05 +0000
      Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-05-27 08:36 +0100
        Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-27 12:17 +0200
        Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-27 18:49 +0000
          Re: maximum number of partitions Robert Nichols <SEE_SIGNATURE@localhost.localdomain.invalid> - 2016-05-27 19:08 -0500
            Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-28 07:11 +0000
              Re: maximum number of partitions Robert Nichols <SEE_SIGNATURE@localhost.localdomain.invalid> - 2016-05-28 09:22 -0500
      Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-27 10:07 +0200
      Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-27 18:07 +0200
        Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-27 20:30 +0200
          Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 00:05 +0200
            Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-28 04:45 +0200
              Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 07:26 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-28 07:15 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 10:25 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-28 11:14 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 13:52 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-28 18:46 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 19:57 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-28 20:15 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2016-05-28 12:04 -0700
                Re: maximum number of partitions Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2016-05-28 22:47 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-29 07:36 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-29 13:48 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-spam@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-06-04 09:50 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-05 10:10 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-06-05 14:31 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-05 13:53 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-06-05 16:18 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-05 18:53 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Scott Hemphill <hemphill@hemphills.net> - 2016-06-05 17:58 -0400
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-06 14:09 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Scott Hemphill <hemphill@hemphills.net> - 2016-06-06 10:32 -0400
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-06-06 16:48 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-spam@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-06-08 22:23 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-06-06 15:55 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-06-06 17:41 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-06-06 17:23 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-06-06 22:36 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-06-06 21:51 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-07 04:54 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-06-07 08:43 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-07 19:04 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-06-07 20:30 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-08 07:08 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-06-06 15:50 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-06-05 16:03 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions noSpam@gmail.com - 2016-07-18 18:57 +0000
                Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-28 17:10 +0200
                Re: maximum number of partitions Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2016-05-28 18:07 +0100
                Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-28 21:33 +0200
  Re: maximum number of partitions novinhael@gmail.com - 2017-02-07 18:10 -0800
    Re: maximum number of partitions Robert Nichols <SEE_SIGNATURE@localhost.localdomain.invalid> - 2017-02-08 07:58 -0600
    Re: maximum number of partitions faeychild <faeychild@nomail.afraid.org> - 2017-02-13 15:23 +1100
      Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2017-02-13 08:04 +0100
    Re: maximum number of partitions "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2017-02-13 08:12 +0100

csiph-web