One or Four?

[David Brodbeck]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Chris Hill <chris at monochrome.org> wrote:
>> 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.
>
>
> I like it. This, or something very similar, seems to me like the best way to
> go.
>
> I am not a professional sysadmin, but have been using FreeBSD since 2.2.6.
> FWIW, I prefer the multi-partition approach for all the reasons already
> mentioned.

I used to...I found it tended to result in more administration load
later, though, because the automated installer's (or my own!) guesses
for partition size are rarely entirely adequate.  Then you end up
slapping in another disk, backing up and repartitioning, or
maintaining a symlink farm...

The default 512 MB root partition was always a particular pain point.
It's completely inadequate if you ever try to build a custom kernel
and want the option of falling back to the old one.  It makes
distribution upgrades nearly impossible.

Nowadays I tend to either use one big root or just root and home for
desktops.  (having a separate home directory *is* nice for upgrades,
sometimes, but again you gotta guess right...)  For servers I will
additionally split off /var, to limit the damage if logging runs amok.