[gentoo-amd64] Re: New install, /var on tmpfs

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Tonko Mulder <tonko.mulder@gmail.com> posted
200802060847.50748.tonko.mulder@gmail.com, excerpted below, on  Wed, 06
Feb 2008 08:47:42 +0100:

> Op Wednesday 06 February 2008 08:39:46 schreef Volker Armin Hemmann:
>> On Mittwoch, 6. Februar 2008, Tonko Mulder wrote:
>> >
>> > I'm doing a new install and since I put /tmp on tmpfs I was wondering
>> > if I could put /var on tmpfs as well.
>>
>> no.

>> You can put
>> /var/tmp
>> on tmpfs, but 'the spec' says, that stuff in /var/tmp should survive a
>> reboot.
>>
>> So
>> /var/tmp/portage
>>
>> that is save.
> 
> Oke, thanks. All needed to know :)

FWIW, I have /tmp on tmpfs, and /var/tmp as a symlink pointing at it.  
There's some stuff in /var/tmp by default that really should go in /var/
cache instead (as above, it's cache, not tmp, and works best if kept over 
a reboot), but at least here, I was able to point it all elsewhere, thus 
leaving tmp (including /var/tmp) as really tmp.

Specifically, I have a script that I run from the local service at boot 
that creates individual user tempdirs for a couple users in /tmp (with a 
~/tmp symlink pointed at the appropriate /tmp/<user> subdir) and 
additionally, creates with the appropriate permissions the various X 
tempdirs (.X11-unix, .ICE-unix, .font-unix, the latter for xfs font 
server I believe).

Additionally, as a KDE user, I had to set and export three KDE* vars in 
my environment, KDEVARTMP and KDESYCOCA to point to a non-tmpfs cache dir 
location (I decided to place them in the user's homedir, not in a system 
dir like /var/tmp, the sycoca var of course points to a filename in the 
dir), and KDETMP to point to the appropriate user tmpdir under /tmp.  
GNOME probably has similar settings, but I'd have no idea what or where 
as I don't run it.

Before setting the KDEVARTMP var I'd lose konqueror and general KDE 
favicon cache, etc.  However, it wasn't anything serious, nor should it 
be, as the spec says /var/tmp is for cached stuff, which is nice to save 
over a reboot, but not critical.  Again, why they don't just use /var/
cache for that, and save tmp for really tmp stuff, I don't know, but 
that's the way it is.

After making those adjustments, I've had no further issues.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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