Moving directories to their own partitions

bxb32001 · 12-08-2003, 12:24 AM

Greetings everyone,

After reading the Debian install and security howtos, I've decided that I should move /var, /usr and /tmp to their own partitions. Thing is, I don't know how my fstab should look like and how big the partitions should be.

I would like to ask for input for the layout I plan (below).

Partition sizes:

/tmp – 50 mb (or 500?)
/var – 3 gb (or 2?)
/usr – 4 gb
/ – 500 mb
(and maybe 2 gb for /usr/local?)

Am I on the right track? Are these partition sizes okay or are they excessive? This computer is the one I'll be using for home. In the future I do plan on setting it up to host web pages as well.

fstab additions:

/dev/hda9 /usr ext2 rw 0 2
/dev/hda6 /tmp ext2 rw 0 2
/dev/hda7 /var ext2 rw 0 2

Do these entries look okay? Or should it be:

/dev/hda9 /usr ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda6 /tmp ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda7 /var ext2 defaults 1 2

I don't know what the numbers at the end mean... I just took these from various sample I found in LQ and Google.

Any thoughts? (and thanks in advance)

- Bryan

Y0jiMb0 · 12-08-2003, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Partition sizes:

/tmp – 50 mb (or 500?)
/var – 3 gb (or 2?)
/usr – 4 gb
/ – 500 mb
(and maybe 2 gb for /usr/local?)

Am I on the right track? Are these partition sizes okay or are they excessive? This computer is the one I'll be using for home. In the future I do plan on setting it up to host web pages as well.

this depends on what you really need, and the free space you have.
Debian is a huge distribution, and if you're going to install most of the packages, you may need more space in "/usr"; I'd make a bit bigger "/tmp" and "/", and a bit smaller "/var" (unless you have special necessities).

...about "fstab", what I have is

Code:

/dev/hdc5        /usr             ext3        ro,suid,nodev,exec,auto,nouser,async        1   2
/dev/hdc6        /tmp             ext3        rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,auto,nouser,async        1   2
/dev/hdc7        /var             ext3        rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,auto,nouser,async         1   2

this is for security reasons (I mean, the "nodev", "nosuid", "noexec"... flags)

If you want to now what do the fields in fstab mean, I'd read "man fstab", which is short and clear; also "man mount" is a good idea.

Regards

bxb32001 · 12-08-2003, 01:12 AM

Ah, many thanks... especially for those secure fstab entries.

I have lots of room (around 90 gigs to spare) but I don't want to over do it as I'd rather use the remaining space for my work and stuff at home (mp3s & scans come into mind).

What would you recommend for /usr, /tmp, and /var (no special considerations really, other than I may plan to host my own webpage in the future)?

Thanks again...

- Bryan

Y0jiMb0 · 12-08-2003, 01:33 AM

Hi!
well, I don't like to tell the people how to divide their hard disk

It's very personal...
what I'll do is to show you the size of my partitions; "df -h" gives

Code:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdc5             3.0G  2.0G  911M  69% /usr
/dev/hdc6             927M   20M  860M   3% /tmp
/dev/hdc7             1.1G   54M  999M   6% /var

Althought, I'd like to have a bit bigger "/usr" partition...
Now, you have to decide

Regards

bxb32001 · 12-08-2003, 02:15 AM

Much apprecieated... this helps, really. For some people (like me), somebody else to show them the path.

Would this layout be better then?

/tmp - 500 mb
/var - hmmm, this is Debian... 1 gb?
/usr - 6 gb? or 8?

Y0jiMb0 · 12-08-2003, 02:28 AM

I think this should be nice (but, again, it's your decision)

Regards

Y0jiMb0 · 12-08-2003, 02:52 AM

Quote:

/dev/hdc5 /usr ext3 ro,suid,nodev,exec,auto,nouser,async 1 2

just one think I forgot: if you want "/usr" to have the "ro" flag, of course, you have to do it after the install process; ie, after the installation process you change the "fstab" file according to your needs...
Regards

bxb32001 · 12-08-2003, 06:40 AM

again, thanks...