One or Four?

[Douglas Carmichael]

I like this because it gives the user a choice, and it clearly lays out the choices based on partition schemes instead of a less-specific 'machine use' choice.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 17, 2012, at 4:46 PM, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:

> Four? There should be five! :-)
> 
> Read on to find out why.
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:05:23 -0800, Robison, Dave wrote:
>> We'd like a show of hands to see if folks prefer the "old" style default 
>> with 4 partitions and swap, or the newer iteration with 1 partition and 
>> swap.
> 
> In my case, preference depends on use. When I'm unable to
> predict how partition occupation will develop, going with
> one / partition is a good approach. It can also be useful
> for cases like home desktops.
> 
> Other cases, like dedicated servers or systems that use
> more than one physical disk (e. g. one system disk, one
> home disk) the approach of using more than one partition
> is welcome.
> 
> I'd like to mention that using different partitions for
> a logical separation of mechanisms and functionalities
> can be a _big_ help in worst case (which you'll hopefully
> never will encounter, but be prepared). For example, if
> you have file system trouble with the /home partition,
> you can bring the system up in a limited state (SUM),
> make the partition "ro" and get the data. You can then
> boot the system into the normal state (MUM) with using
> the copy you made, leaving the original /home partition
> unmounted and untouched. In case of data recovery and
> forensic analysis this can be your chance to get your
> data back.
> 
> 
> 
>> We realize that one can use bsdinstall to create as many partitions as 
>> one wants. However, the new default is for one partition and swap. We 
>> want to know if people would prefer the older style default with four 
>> partitions and swap when selecting "Guided Partitioning" and "Use Entire 
>> Disk".
> 
> Well, to be honest, I never liked the "old style" default
> with /home being part of /usr. As I mentioned before, _my_
> default style for separated partitions include:
> 
>    /
>    swap
>    /tmp
>    /var
>    /usr
>    /home
> 
> In special cases, add /opt or /scratch as separate partitions
> with intendedly limited sizes.
> 
> You can see that all user data is kept independently from
> the rest of the system. It can easily be switched over to
> a separate "home disk" if needed.
> 
> What's the reason for this? Limited partitions are often
> considered a problem, but they can be a system's life saver.
> Just imagine you have all functional parts of the system in
> one big / tree, let's also say /tmp is writable for users
> (and it's not a memory file system); now a maliciously acting
> user or program could fill /tmp with lots of data, occupying
> the full disk. Soon, /var/log cannot be written anymore, and
> also other processes that need to write something may get
> into trouble. If /tmp is a separate partition, only /tmp can
> get "out of disk space", with /var being fully untouched.
> 
> Also keep in mind that some tools like to operate on partition
> level, such as dump (and restore). System tools like quota can
> also be used on a partition level. As I mentioned before, being
> able to mount a partition read-only can be helpful sometimes,
> same goes for other mount options, such as noexec or noatime.
> When dealing with this low level stuff is neccessary (e. g. on
> embedded systems or systems that are low on resources where you
> need to squeeze every bit of performance by fine tuning), having
> individual partitions can be a big help.
> 
> 
> 
>> Let the majority decide which layout is preferred for the default.
> 
> Why not add a selection to the installer, something like
> this:
> 
>    Partition scheme
>    ----------------
> 
>    [ ] all in one + swap
>        Create one partition containing all subtrees
>        plus one swap partition.
> 
>    [ ] separate partitioning + swap
>        Create /, /var, /tmp and /usr (including home)
>        partitions plus one swap partition.
> 
>    [ ] user-defined
>        Make your own partitioning selection manually.
> 
> Of course, the default SIZES for second choice should be
> reasonable.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Polytropon
> Magdeburg, Germany
> Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
> Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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