RE: Root directory filling up...

From: Kiffin Gish (kiffin.gish_at_planet.nl)
Date: 12/14/04

  • Next message: Kevin Smith: "video capture and editing suggestions please"
    Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 20:43:19 +0100
    To: "'Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.'" <kdk@daleco.biz>
    
    

    Wow, that seems like a lot of work. Suppose instead I choose just to
    reinstall everything all over again...

    What stuff do I need to save and restore later so that I don't have to
    reinstall all my applications all over again (Internet, mail, gnome,
    x-windows)?

    Like the /etc/* , etc. Is there a standard way to do this?

    -- 
    Kiffin Rex Gish
    Gouda, The Netherlands
     
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. [mailto:kdk@daleco.biz]
    > Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 22:54
    > To: kiffin.gish@planet.nl
    > Cc: Nikolas Britton; freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org
    > Subject: Re: Root directory filling up...
    > 
    > Kiffin Gish wrote:
    > 
    > > Nikolas Britton wrote:
    > >
    > >> Kiffin Gish wrote:
    > >>
    > >>> I recently decided to dump windows and take a much deserved breather
    > >>> with
    > >>> FreeBSD. So I installed 5.3 and was in for a real treat!
    > >>>
    > >>> However, I created a /-directory with 4G and installed the complete
    > >>> ports
    > >>> stuff from the CD. Now my root directory is almost filled up (after I
    > >>> installed all the Gnome Desktop stuff).
    > >>>
    > >>> I always do a make clean. Is there an easier way to only keep the
    > ports
    > >>> stuff that is 'really' required?
    > >>>
    > >>> I noticed that there are tons of tarballs etc. in the
    > >>> /usr/ports/distfiles
    > >>> directory. Is it safe to delete all of these?
    > >>>
    > >>> Are there any other suggestions to keep my root directory from
    > >>> filling up?
    > >>>
    > >> What do you mean / is filling up? the default during install is to make
    > >> 5 partitions /, Swap, /tmp, /var, and /usr.
    > >>
    > >> See mine for example:
    > >> Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
    > >> /dev/ad0s1a    739M     64M    616M     9%    /
    > >> devfs                1.0K    1.0K      0B   100%    /dev
    > >> /dev/ad0s1e    739M     15M    665M     2%    /tmp
    > >> /dev/ad0s1f     69G     25G     38G    40%    /usr
    > >> /dev/ad0s1d    739M     59M    621M     9%    /var
    > >> /dev/ad1s1      28G     24G    3.8G    86%    /mnt
    > >> linprocfs          4.0K    4.0K      0B   100%
    > /usr/compat/linux/proc
    > >>
    > >> The most you should need for / is 128MB (I think that is default during
    > >> install)
    > >>
    > >>
    > >> please sent the output of these commands "df -h", "more /etc/fstab",
    > and
    > >> "disklabel ad0s1"
    > >>
    > > bash-2.05b$ df -h
    > > Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
    > > /dev/ad0s4a    3.9G    2.5G    1.1G    70%    /
    > > devfs          1.0K    1.0K      0B   100%    /dev
    > > /dev/ad0s4d    7.4G    5.9M    6.8G     0%    /home
    > >
    > > This was the recommended setup according to the book The Complete
    > > FreeBSD, but now I realize this is probably not the best choice.
    > >
    > > bash-2.05b$ more /etc/fstab
    > > # Device                Mountpoint      FStype  Options
    > > Dump    Pass#
    > > /dev/ad0s4b             none            swap    sw              0
    > 0
    > > /dev/ad0s4a             /               ufs     rw              1
    > 1
    > > /dev/ad0s4d             /home           ufs     rw              2
    > 2
    > > /dev/acd0               /cdrom          cd9660  ro,noauto       0
    > 0
    > >
    > > su-2.05b# disklabel ad0s1
    > > disklabel: /dev/ad0s1: no valid label found
    > 
    > 
    > That would need to be `disklabel /dev/ad0s4`, then.
    > 
    > As to the distfiles question, you can safely remove all
    > of them as long as you don't mind downloading them
    > again if, for some reason, something needs to be
    > recompiled.
    > 
    > Your real problem is that you've got /tmp (temporary
    > disposable stuff, generally), /var/ (mail, logs, database
    > storage, etc.) and /usr (programs, source, documents,
    > the ports tree, the buildworld target directory, etc), all
    > in your root partition, which is just barely big enough to
    > hold all that stuff unless you do your housekeeping very
    > regularly (and thoroughly).
    > 
    > A possible hack, in case you don't wish to backup and
    > reinstall, or learn about growfs(8), [which may be what
    > Nick is getting at by asking for disklabel output]:
    > 
    > Move some stuff to your /home partition, and then
    > create symlinks to it from its original location.
    > 
    > Some candidates:  /tmp, /var/log, /root/, /usr/ports,
    > /usr/src, /usr/obj, /usr/local ...
    > 
    > Now, I can't say which would be best; it depends
    > on what's filling up so fast (probably /usr, if you've
    > added X, or really many ports at all) and there might
    > be some security or other issues I'm not aware of,
    > but it's a valid strategy for at least the short term.
    > 
    > So, let's say we wanted to move the ports tree and
    > our source tree to /home.  As root:
    > 
    > # cd /usr
    > # mv ports /home/
    > # mv src /home/
    > # ln -s /home/ports ports
    > # ln -s /home/src src
    > 
    > Like I said, it's a hack, but it's an available one ;-)
    > 
    > Another possibility, though it's possibly more
    > nerve wracking, would be to do something like this:
    > 
    > 1.  Drop to single user mode in console.
    > 2.  Do something like this:
    > 
    > change /etc/fstab from:
    >     /dev/ad0s4d             /home           ufs     rw
    > 2       2
    > to:
    >     /dev/ad0s4d             /usr           ufs     rw
    > 2       2
    > 
    > Then:
    > #mkdir /home/home
    > #mv /home/* /home/home/
    >    (*note that this will give you one error message,
    >     but should still work.)
    > #mv /usr/* /home
    > 
    > and then reboot.  After rebooting, you will need
    > to make sure that it's possible to get to /usr/home by
    > typing "cd /home", so another symlink would be required.
    > Note that I said, this could be scary --- I don't foresee
    > any potential problems, but if you've never had
    > to recover from a fuzted command using only
    > /bin/sh and the contents of /, it can be a hair-raising
    > experience.
    > 
    > Maybe Nick can chime in and say what he thinks;
    > [or someone else --- maybe you should've asked the
    > questions@freebsd.org mailing list, instead of newbies]
    > It might be that growfs isn't that difficult and it is,
    > after all, designed for this purpose.
    > 
    > HTH,
    > 
    > Kevin Kinsey
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