Hard Disk Partition Sizes - Revision history

Sidetone: /* /var Ramdisk */

2015-08-22T21:12:44Z

/var Ramdisk

2015-08-22T21:12:24Z

Var Ramdisk only for completely read-only operating systems

2013-01-04T22:23:04Z

typo

2012-08-25T22:05:59Z

2012-08-25T22:04:16Z

Reverted edits by 173.88.199.104 (talk) to last revision by Jimbo

2012-08-13T15:57:21Z

2011-09-23T14:55:21Z

2011-09-23T10:54:09Z

One Big Partition

2009-09-01T20:58:37Z

Official Information and Terms

2009-09-01T20:58:02Z

One Big Partition

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 The /var/tmp directory can be deleted, and replaced with a [[soft links|soft link]] to the /tmp partition (or vice versa). This can be done with either '''ln -s /tmp /var/tmp''' or '''ln -s /var/tmp /tmp''' as root. This is recommended since there is essentially no difference between /var/tmp and /tmp on modern systems, but some programs use one instead of the other.
-===/var Ramdisk==
+===/var Ramdisk===
 It is not a good idea to place /var or any of its subdirectories on RAM, except on certain Read Only operating systems. Var and its subdirectories usually contain needed information that is normally not supposed to be emptied on reboot. The programs '''md''' or '''tmpfs''' would be used in conjunction with ''/etc/fstab'' to achieve this.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Before we get started, I am acting under the impression that the reader is a relative newbie to the world of FreeBSD, and is attempting to figure out how to partition their disks for the first time. I also assume that the reader is aware of the official FreeBSD documentation related to installing located here: [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html The FreeBSD Handbook Install Section]. More aware users will have discovered the partitioning information available under [http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tuning&format=html man tuning] under FreeBSD 6.0 . By the existence of this page, however, you have also realized that some tweaking to both the default setup and the information in tuning is necessary for many installations.
@@ Line 49: / Line 48: @@
 ===The /var/tmp directory===
 The /var/tmp directory can be deleted, and replaced with a [[soft links|soft link]] to the /tmp partition (or vice versa). This can be done with either '''ln -s /tmp /var/tmp''' or '''ln -s /var/tmp /tmp''' as root. This is recommended since there is essentially no difference between /var/tmp and /tmp on modern systems, but some programs use one instead of the other.
 ==The /usr partition==

@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 ===The /var/tmp directory===
-The /var/tmp directory can be deleted, and replaced with a [[soft links|soft link]] to the /tmp partition (or vice versa). This can be done with either '''ln -s /tmp /var/tmp''' or '''ln -s /var/tmp /tmp''' as root. This is recomended since there is essentially no difference between /var/tmp and /tmp on modern systems, but some programs use one instead of the other.
+The /var/tmp directory can be deleted, and replaced with a [[soft links|soft link]] to the /tmp partition (or vice versa). This can be done with either '''ln -s /tmp /var/tmp''' or '''ln -s /var/tmp /tmp''' as root. This is recommended since there is essentially no difference between /var/tmp and /tmp on modern systems, but some programs use one instead of the other.
 ==The /usr partition==

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 ==One Big Partition==
-The default install contrasts strongly with a fairly popular partitioning scheme for a system for an individual user:
+The default install contrasts strongly with a fairly popular partitioning scheme for a system for an individual user.  (NOTE: as of Release 9.0 sysinstall has been replaced with bsdinstall, and the default partition in now a single partition.)
   SWAP  ''two times the system RAM''

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 It is worth repeating that FreeBSD looks at hard disk partitions in a slightly different way from windows and linux. When I refer to partitions in the following sections, I am refering to FreeBSD style partitions, which are a bit different from what you may be used to under linux or Windows. To make a long story short, FreeBSD can hold many partitions inside of a single slice (a FreeBSD slice = a windows or linux partition). This frees FreeBSD from being limited to a rather inconvenient number of 4 or so partitions. Read the handbook carefully for more details
 ==The Default Install==
@@ Line 66: / Line 63: @@
 The default partitioning scheme follows the idea of creating a link from /home to /usr/home, and giving /usr most of the disk. The problem with this is that /usr is needed to bring a system up, and in a situation where you may have as much as 250gigs (or more) of space under /usr, it will take quite awhile to file system check before you can bring the system up to check it. Which is particularly bad if you're having consistent crashes. One way to deal with this is to give /usr and /home their own partitions -- if /home has its own slice, it will not be made a link to /usr/home during the install.
 [[Category:New_User_Tips_and_FAQs]] [[Category:Common Tasks]]
-[[Category : Installation]]
+[[Category:FreeBSD for Servers]]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 Although this will ''work'', this layout should ''never'' be used on an important system, for two major reasons:
-*In case of a serious system failure (repeated reboots), the entire drive will need to have it's file system checked with [[fsck]] on every reboot. The core systems of FreeBSD do not require very much disk space. Sensible partitioning would allow you to only check critical partitions, and put off the rest of the checks until the system is stable.  This can be the difference between 2 minutes per reboot-with-fsck and '''thirty''' minutes per reboot-with-fsck on larger drives! This is not an issue with ZFS.
+*In case of a serious system failure (repeated reboots), the entire drive will need to have it's file system checked with [[fsck]] on every reboot. The core systems of FreeBSD do not require very much disk space. Sensible partitioning would allow you to only check critical partitions, and put off the rest of the checks until the system is stable.  This can be the difference between 2 minutes per reboot-with-fsck and '''thirty''' minutes per reboot-with-fsck on larger drives! (Note: this is not an issue with ZFS, since ZFS does not require fscks).
 *One of the primary reasons to separate things out, is to prevent one partition from filling up all the space and making other things stop working because they run out of space.