David Laight wrote:
> 
> > We shouldn't even be THINKING about determining partition sizes
> > in autoconf mode until we have determined what we're installing.
> 
> Probably true - Maybe the build system could work out the size of
> each set so sysinst could get the right answers for the sizes!
> 
I don't know why this is being discussed on current-users instead of 
tech-install where you started the posts.... 

I agree that we have to determine what we are installing!  I've 
never been satisfied with the systinst choices, and would boil them 
down to 3:
  a) workstation (single user)
  b) server
  c) development

Workstation would have the swap, and /, just as you've described. 
Then, no need to worry whether X is used or not.

Server would split out /, /tmp, /var, and /usr.

Development would split out /, /usr, and /home!  

Why?   Because with the constant reinstalling of the OS, (or various 
applications) having a place that is easy to keep without losing the 
source changes (while everything else is munged) would be very handy, 
but it's too hard to guess what the many partition sizes should be 
as they change from time to time.

I think this would limit the number of questions about "how much is 
enough?"

I'm also assuming that a server is like a mail/FTP/WWW/CVS machine, 
with an administrator, but not a lot of user accounts. 


> However I'd not dug that deep.  It has taken me a week to get
> most of the architecture replicated stuff consolidated (please don't
> just copy a file to make a 1 line change.....)
> 
Yeah, when I started looking at this last fall, I gave up.


> When did /export come along? not than long ago.  home directories used to
> go in /home (actually I suspect into /usr longer ago) before moving
> to /export/home.
> 
/export isn't part of the current install.  /home is.  Let's stick with 
/home, and let the NFS folks setup export as needed.  I rarely run 
NFS export on more than 1 machine. 


> To have separate /var and /usr you need to know what the system will
> be used for.  This can only be known by the person installing it.
> 
True.  But I'd like systinst to have good estimates of what those sizes 
are likely to be, as this has always been a common newbie question 
(where newbie is even those of us migrating from 1 *BSD to another).


> If you actually run the code, you'll see that I've really merged
> 'custom' with the other options (I should probably delete custom)
> so you always get to choose your file system sizes.
> 
Haven't tried it yet.  But always showing the results and allowing 
modification is a Good Thing.  Delete custom.


> /var (and /home) have not been separated by default (at least on i386).
> To someone who is installing for the first time 'all the space in one fs'
> will make them less unhappy later on.
> 
Only for a workstation.  For a server of any kind, they really should 
be separate.  And a lot of *BSD use is for servers.

-- 
William Allen Simpson
    Key fingerprint =  17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26  DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32