Bug#301800: debian-installer-manual: Partitioning size guidelines (appendix B) should be increased

["Karsten M. Self" <kmself@ix.netcom.com>]

Package: debian-installer-manual
Severity: normal


Section Appendix B.2 of the Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide covers
partitioning of new systems.  I maintain a popular and frequently
referenced guide on GNU/Linux partitioning, and feel the size specs
given are small relative to current system needs (and likely to be
increasingly insufficient).

My guide can be found at:

    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/partition.html


Specifically, rationale:

 - / (root) filesystem:  100 MiB is too small, given current kernels,
   particularly if stock kernels with large numbers of modules are
   installed.  Current 2.6.x kernel + module runs over 40 MiB currently,
   future kernels will likely be larger.  150 MiB minimum, and 250 MiB
   suggested size.

 - /usr:  While a light system can fit into 500 MiB or less, a rich
   workstation or server environment (particularly with extensive
   documentation -- HOWTOs, RFCs, and optional documents) will exceed 3
   GiB.  Given likely future growth, suggesting 4-5 GiB, space allowing,
   is recommended.

 - /home:  Current recommendation is good.  My own suggestion is to
   allocate balance of space (after system partitions are allocated) to
   /home.  For small-disk installs, I generally symlink /home under
   /usr/home.

 - /var:  Current recommendation is good.

 - /tmp:  I'd double the minimum config to 40-100 MiB.  Some tools
   (xcdroast, mc) use /tmp for temporary files including of potentially
   large ISO or compressed file images.  My current /tmp config is 250
   MiB, and is now at 20% utilization.  Disk is cheap.


Suggested rewrite:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is a list of important considerations regarding
directories and partitions.  Note that disk usage varies widely given
system configuration and specific usage patterns.  The recommendations
here should apply to a typical workstation or server configuration.

    - The root partition / must always physically contain /etc, /bin,
      /sbin, /lib and /dev, otherwise you won't be able to boot.
      Typically 150 MB is needed for the root partition, but this may
      vary.

    - /usr: all user programs (/usr/bin), libraries (/usr/lib),
      documentation (/usr/share/doc), etc., are in this directory. This
      part of the file system needs most of the space. You should
      provide at least 500 MB of disk space. If you want to install more
      packages you should increase the amount of space you give this
      directory.  A generous workstation or server install should allow
      4-6 GiB.

    - /home: every user will put his data into a subdirectory of this
      directory. The size of this depends on how many users will be
      using the system and what files are to be stored in their
      directories. Depending on your planned usage you should reserve
      about 100 MB for each user, but adapt this value to your needs.

    - /var: all variable data like news articles, e-mails, web sites,
      the packaging system cache, etc. will be placed under this
      directory. The size of this directory depends greatly on the usage
      of your computer, but for most people will be dictated by the
      package management tool's overhead. If you are going to do a full
      installation of just about everything Debian has to offer, all in
      one session, setting aside 2 or 3 gigabytes of space for /var
      should be sufficient. If you are going to install in pieces (that
      is to say, install services and utilities, followed by text stuff,
      then X, ...), you can get away with 300-500 megabytes in /var. If
      hard drive space is at a premium and you don't plan on doing major
      system updates, you can get by with as little as 30 or 40
      megabytes in /var.

    - /tmp: if a program creates temporary data it will most likely go
      in /tmp. 40-100 MB should usually be enough.  Some applications
      including archive manipulators, CD/DVD authoring tools, and
      multimedia software may use /tmp for temporarially storing image
      files.  Allow > 700 MiB for CD and > 2 GiB for DVDs, on such
      systems.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (950, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.7-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)