Summary: How to make /var separate

From: Edward J. Huff (huff@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 30 1993 - 15:27:49 CDT


Thanks for 5 replies. Here are my conclusions:

Making /var a separate partition is not a good idea
because it seems that sometimes /var is needed when only
/ and /usr are mounted. No doubt, actually only certain
directories in /var are needed. Does anyone know which
ones, or how to find out?

Using the default partition sizes was a mistake which I am
going to work around using symbolic links rather than a
reinstall. (Could this cause trouble down the road when
I want to upgrade?)

Most of the static space in /var is in /var/sadm. This is
not difficult to move to /a/var/sadm. (In fact, I just
did it).

If I really wanted to move /var, then the proper procedure
would be to boot in single user mode (shutdown -is) and
make a tape backup of /var with ufsdump. Then restore
the files to a new partition. Specify that the partition
should be automounted as /var by editing /etc/vfstab.

BTW in order to mount the partition, there has to be
a var directory in the / filesystem. What happens if
there are files in that directory when the partition is
mounted? Do the files become invisible?

--
Edward J. Huff   huff@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu   (212)998-8465
Keck Laboratory for Biomolecular Imaging
NYU Chemistry Deptartment, 31 Washington Place, New York NY 10003



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