On Fri, 5 Dec 1997, Robert.V.Baron wrote:

> Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 23:09-EST
> From: "Robert.V.Baron" <rvb@gluck.coda.cs.cmu.edu>
> To: current-users@NetBSD.ORG, port-i386@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: disk partition size
> 
> 1. I think that most people do not want crash dumps.  (we need a
>    survey.)
> 
> 2. I think that a 32Meg root and a 120 Meg usr work for most systems
> 
> 3. Given 2. you have a large usr1.
> 
> 4. If you need to dump, just make usr1 a critical fs (it gets mounted
>    early) and have crash link to it.  This would seem to be a good
>    compromise.
> 
> 5. swap is funny.  I buy memory not to swap period; not to swap larger
>    programs.  I think that there should be some limit on swap to 64Meg
>    so large systems don't get large swap.

I want crash dumps. I want a snapshot of the system right when it went
wrong so I can find out what went wrong in the first place and prevent it
in future. You see, unlike certain systems, resetting/re-installing
doesn't have to be the only solution. With NetBSD, the magic is that the
source is there for you to fix/alter to your heart's content! My system
has been heavily modified and personalised--my sendmail answers with
cryptic messages, refuses to verify, my identd gives generic response for
any query, ftpd logs every command to a difficult to find area on hard
drive, login logs every failed attempt to console..  stupid little things,
i know, but i'd
never have been able to do all this in the puny amount of time I did had i
been using some other o/s. I love NetBSD!

So, remove the swap and there goes a goodly portion of the whole point of
that mystical and now unfrtunately very difficult beast, the "debug".

32M root and 120M /usr is not what I started with. I don't want each
subsystem on its own partition. I started with 200M root and 800M /usr.
That, now, is barely enough, and I'm running a dinky little one-user
system. I guess I'm just a power-user. Heaven forbid five or more of us on
the same system!

Multi-user systems are not going to operate so well in such small
partitions.

And you may buy mem so you don't need swap, but again you are proposing a
limitation in the o/s. Why be limited? What would be the point of
scrapping a swap? Come to think of it, what is the point in any of these
suggestions? And after all, remember that your needs are most certainly
not my needs.

doh

marc tooley