> I don't know why this is being discussed on current-users instead of 
> tech-install where you started the posts.... 

Really because I wanted more people to know the changes had been made...

> 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!  

That all depends what you think /usr is for!
I don't see a big need to separate / and /usr.

FWIW this system has:
Filesystem  1K-blocks     Used     Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/wd0h     2087630  1567403    415845    79%    /
mfs:209         99087       23     94109     0%    /tmp
kernfs              1        1         0   100%    /kern
procfs              4        4         0   100%    /proc
/dev/wd0a      528051    27675    473973     5%    /oldroot
/dev/wd0e     2465712  2183228    159198    93%    /oldroot/usr
/dev/wd0g     1610231   482826   1046893    31%    /home
/dev/wd0i     5964268  2805701   2860353    49%    /bsd
/dev/wd0j     1985263   170146   1715853     9%    /sparc_root
/dev/wd0k     1751824  1449749    214483    87%    /shark_root

The /sparc_root is a root filesystem for a diskless sparc system.
The /shark_root isn't (someone said they might lend me one), but
contains some disk images I use with bochs.

/home and /bsd (a current bsd source/build tree) are separate for
obvious reasons.  I have another bsd tree in /oldroot/usr...

> 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.

A separate fs for /usr/pkg wouldmake more sense than one for /usr

> 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).

Trouble is they are questions like 'how long is a piece of string'...

> > 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.

I'm actually tempted to delete the 'with X' from that stage.
I suspect the man pages make as much difference.

> > /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.

I didn't say they shouldn't be.  /home in particular.
Also server installers are not normally totally clueless!


	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk