[ale] Available blocks

[John M. Mills]

On Thu, 4 Nov 1999, Brian J. Dowd wrote:

> When installing RedHat Linux I set up /dev/hda1 as '/'.
> /dev/hda5,6,7,8 have lots of space on them but df indicates that my '/'
> is 98% filled up. Is there a way of alloting more blocks to it without a
> complete re-install? There were 1569797 1-k blocks but only 30955 are
> left. Should I be worried?

Look at those directories placed in '/' and find some good candidates to
soft-link from other partitions. "Good candidates" are those you expect
will grow over time or to rise and fall over usage. '/tmp' is an obvious
one which can bite when your back is turned - especially if you handle
large image files or other massive transient data. (Moving '/tmp', watch
out for things like '/tmp/.X11-*' and numerous sockets which are present
there as the system runs: you can expect to reboot after moving that one,
and there may be subtleties there I've forgotten -- or skated by on dumb
luck.)

'/usr/local' is another reasonable choice, etc.

You can 'tar' the current contents to the new harbor, rename the original,
create the link, and test it without trashing your installation: if it
doesn't work, remove the link and rename the back branch to its original.
(As I say, parts of '/tmp' may not be in this category, at least not
without a reboot. _Have_ a boot/rescue disk in your hand! Test it first
... &;^)

  John Mills, Sr. Software Engineer
  TGA Technologies, Inc.
  100 Pinnacle Way, Suite 140
  Norcross, GA 30071-3633
  e-mail: jmills at tga.com
  Phone: 770-441-2100 ext.124 (voice)
         770-449-7740 (FAX)