[Gllug] ext3 filesystem suddenly full

[t.clarke]

It seems to me that ideally one needs:
1) a very small filesystem at the beginning of the drive containing the kernel
and enough stuff to initiate a boot.  This then allows the root file system
to reside anywhere without worrying about cylinder limitations of the BIOS boot.

2) a modest root filesystem which contains all the basic programs and stuff
needed to get the system up and running in multi-user mode.

3) another filesystem to contain all the user programs.

4) other filesystem(s) to contain 'data'.


1 & 2 can be accurately sized it would seem.  3 would obviously need to be sized
according to what is installed plus a generous amount of spare space.
4 could then take the the bulk to the remaining space.

With this arrangement 1 - 3 only need be backed-up somewhere infrequently (like
when stuff is added).   4 would  be backed-up regularly as what it contains
will be dynamic and change frequently.

I may be wrong on these, but it seems that the basic Unix/Linux filesystem and
directory arrangements do not make this very easy wtihout using symbolic links
all over the show,   as  /etc /usr /var etc all contain both programs and data
that changes.  For example either /usr or /var will most likely contain print
spool and mail data as well as programs.

With regard to  previous suggestions,  maybe one could create one large
partition called  'whatever' and then within it create directories:
/whatever/usr
/whatever/var        etc

then symlink /usr to /whatever/user  and /var to /whatever/var   ???

Ok there is a small overhead when accessing files to due to resolving the link,
but at least it avoids the problem of having to guess the right sizes for /usr
/var  etc.

Just a thought  !!

Whichever way things are done I think its a good idea to keep programs and
static stuff separated from data and dynamic stuff !

Tim

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