Re: Idea: mount /tmp to tmpfs depending on free space and RAM

[Bjørn Mork <bjorn@mork.no>]

Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com> writes:

> I've happily been using tmpfs on /tmp/ for probably ten years now, and
> can list some more benefits:
>
>  - It allow diskless setups like LTSP to work the same way the default
>    installation in Debian work.  They use read-only NFS-mounted file
>    systems and a writable tmpfs mounted on /tmp/.
>
>  - It reduces the number of disk writes on a laptop, allowing it to
>    spin down the disk a bit longer.


I'd like to add another one:

- a tmpfs is always easy to grow without requiring any special
  preparations.  Just add more swap.  The swap could be on different
  disks, and could even be files hosted on other file systems.

Any file system will run out of space given the broken applications
mentioned in this thread.  tmpfs is the only one which will allow all
systems to dynamically add more space, only limited by the available
disks. That's why tmpfs should be the default for both new and old
systems, unless the administrator has explicitly made a more limited
choice.


Bjørn