[Way OT] dieresis

Mar 01, 2010 65 Replies

the

My typical usage is to partition the new disk the way i want and copy the= =20 source tree to target partition the way i want it to be.

second

And the sizes of the new partitions mirror the old ones. I don't seem to= =20 have come across a version of parted that will just do as i ask, instead=20 of second guessing me.

=46er instance; stretch the extended partition to the end of the disk, = move=20 the internal partitions to the end, move the beginning of the extended=20 partition, modify existing primary partitions. Most bitch about the = first=20 change and only one so far did the second. All versions i have tried = refused=20 to do the third task. Rather non-*nix like i say.

Always. After making backups. I have 2 or 3 largish unused hard disks = handy.

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Yep, i have done that, once. Still creeps me a bit.

That is where parted usually tells me NO.

Oh well, I just hate to trash good working stuff though.

I've never used extended partitions. Four primary to a drive is enough for me. In fact three primary partitions are all I have, now: boot - swap - root, with the boot partition (/dev/hda1) mounted on /boot in /etc/fstab at startup.

I've never had any trouble with parted not doing what I wanted. I'll dig the manual out and refresh my memory on what it will/won't do. My version is old (1.6.3)

"Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

I don't run Linux so keep that in mind...

Can't you (or, *don't* you?) build slices *within* a "partition"? E.g., I can set up an x86 PC to use one of the (4) partitions for DOS, another for some variant of Windows a third for NetBSD 3.1 and the fourth for NetBSD 5.0.

DOS and Windows are happy -- since they deal with "partitions".

Within each of the NetBSD partitions, I create many (4, 8, 10?) "slices" (think: partition : disk :: slice : partition) and each of those is (potentially) a filesystem mounted someplace in the (NetBSD) hierarchy.

E.g., /, /var, /usr, /usr/local, /usr/pkg, /home ...

I don't run DOS or Windows. Strictly Microsoft-free zone here. Just Linux.

I don't know anything about NetBSD filesystems. Linux fdisk will make NetBSD partitions, but I don't know whether there's an mkfs for NetBSD.

I used to have /usr and /home on a separate physical drive, once, when all I had were smallish drives. I can't see any point in having lots of separate partitions otherwise. My boot partition is a relic of the days of BIOS that would only boot from the first 1024 cylinders.

"Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

Doesn't matter. I could make them all {Net,Open,Free}BSD "partitions"...

Having partitions is a double-edged sword. Put everything in / and if something corrupts that file system, you're hosed. OTOH, keep / small and effectively R/O, then you can be reasonably sure that you can mount it (single user) and, from there, troubleshoot problems you might have with other "not yet mounted" file systems.

You can also treat them as different file systems (with different characteristics).

(there's a long list of the "cans" as well as the "downsides")

When I first started sysadm'ing UN*X boxes (before the free eunices came into being), I found partitions to be a PITA. Over time, my attitude has flipped 180 on this issue...

A long time ago, I had dual boot Windows/Linux with 2 DOS partitions and

3 Linux partitions spread over two physical devices. But then, (ten years ago) I dumped DOS/Windows.

I can see the argument. However, the only time a filesystem got seriously corrupted, e2fsk did a sterling job of recovering it. Even told me which files it couldn't recover

"Eunices" - like it !

"Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

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