> 	Since we default to not having a separate /var partition

(this is a digression):

I'm not really sure why this is the case; I generally much prefer
separate /var:
 - /var's contents are more-or-less transient (and not crucial to
boot)
 - with /var moved off, root becomes mostly read-only and thus less
likely to be trashed in the event of hardware problems.

					- Bill