Re: [tlug] join /tmp and /var

[Shimpei Yamashita <shimpei@example.com>]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 11:05:26AM +0200,
Pietro Zuco wrote:

> Hi tlugers!
> 
> I want to put /var and /tmp in different partitios.
> The disk is small and to create two partitions will waste space.
> I was thinking about this solution:
> 
> Create a partition for var and tmp. Inside of it make two directories, var and 
> tmp.
> In the root dir, change the var and tmp for symbolic links to the var and tmp 
> directories I created in the partion.

Um, putting /var and /tmp together almost defeats the point of partitioning
at all. 

A big reason why you want to partition away /tmp is to avoid launching a
denial of service attack on yourself by inadvertently filling up the partition
/tmp is on. Well, guess what--/var is the easiest partition to fill up on a
Unix system, and also the only partition that an outsider can legitimately
fill up for you. (Think "/var/spool/mail" and "big attachments".) So you're
getting all the hassle of partitioning, without much of the merits. Why
not just make the entire hard disk one big partition and be done with it?
At least you aren't wasting any space that way.

I'm also a bit leery of a system in which the root partition is basically
nonfunctional by itself (on your system, no program that writes to /tmp
works until the extra partition is mounted), but that may just be the
Luddite in me.

Shimpei.