Re: Moving /tmp to tmpfs makes it useless

[Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org>]

On 05/27/2012 04:32 AM, Russ Allbery wrote:
> The root problem here is that we have multiple parameters that we want to
> set on temporary storage:
>
> 1. Space for dumping arbitrary files without assuming anything about the
>    structure of the user's home directory.
>
> 2. Fast space for small temporary files that will be removed when the
>    system is rebooted.
>
> 3. Space for large temporary files that will be removed when the system is
>    rebooted.
>   
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. AFAIK, we don't have 2. It
has always been the case that /tmp was on disk, and never,
applications are expecting it to be lightning fast, they just
expect normal disk performances.

Currently, It's just that some people in Debian and in this
thread think it's so important to be fast. But I am yet to
be convinced on the importance of the optimization, especially
considering the risks it implies (eg: the system swapping like
crazy in some cases which aren't at all "corners").

I am not saying that it wont be faster in some case, I'm just
saying that nobody wrote here yet *when* this is important.
So, if you know cases where an ultra-fast /tmp is mandatory,
please reply to this post.

Cheers,

Thomas