Subject: Re: /dev on tmpfs problem
To: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/14/2005 00:45:56
On Sun, Nov 13, 2005 at 09:59:49PM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> Given the amount of (justifiable!) complaining we already see about how 
> hard it is to get VM tuning correct, I don't think this is a good path 
> to follow -- it adds one more element of unpredictability to system 
> behavior.  At most, I think that sysinst could look at RAM and swap 
> size and suggest that as the default -s option for /tmp.

How about a mandated size option that can be specified in percentage
of RAM (or RAM+swap) or absolute size and which can be tuned at
runtime (with some default set in sysinst when we move to /tmp
on tmpfs in sysinst)?

I don't know how much of a bear it would be to resize a tmpfs on
the fly now, but I would expect it's doable if the memory is available.

I don't like the idea of having something that I can't put a boundary
on for some systems.  I don't like having to think about it for all
of the systems I install, either.

-allen

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