root directory being filled?

[delfinnium]

Hi all

I've had a clean reinstall of my linux mint and everything is good... until just today a thing popped up to say that my root is full.

D: I had given it 4GB when I reinstalled linux mint, leaving everything to my home drive. Now what I read is that root IS required in larger volumes.

So what can I do? I have plenty of space in /home, and I don't particularly want to reinstall everything. Where is the files where I can delete/clear my cache? How do I go about doing it?

(In nice easy steps because I can't actually find this .tmp or .var folders that other websites say I must look in.)

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Swap: you don't really need a separate partition for swap since, IIRC, Linux 2.2.

Just shows how old I am.

Boot: a 128Mb partition with an ext2 filesystem should be enough. Actually, mine's 124Mb and only 20% used.

It depends on which distro you're using... some distro policies are to have multiple kernels available, and ever since the time I ran out of space on /boot when I was trying to do a dist-upgrade from one version of Ubuntu to another, I've been a bit more generous than that.

Also, remember that in Unix-like systems, links work.

One notable exception: if you're running an Apache server and using suexec, it does check if you're doing soft links for /var/www and suexec spits the dummy. As it should, since that's a security vulnerability.

That said, a separate /var is usually a good idea if you have more than one HDD.

Though having more than one HDD, with disks the size they are nowadays, isn't something that common unless one built one's system oneself.

[doldonius]

Swap file improvements never created big flame wars. Guess that's why the fact remains generally unknown. Also, everything said may be wrong if using hibernation.

It depends on which distro you're using...

Indeed. The strategy above is aimed at a Debian desktop. Should've mentioned it.

running an Apache server and using suexec

Now, that's a bit tricky. But generally, you only need to keep the cgi-bin subdirectory in the right place and with the right rights. So on my server users' document roots are in their ~/public_html, and their cgi-bin subdirs are created in /var/www and symlinked from ~/public_html.

Nobody uses cgi-bin these days, though. It's all PHP and 'Help, my site's got pwned again.'

Some FTP servers won't let remote users to follow symlinks and even mounts, either. Well, it's security vs usability, as always.

having more than one HDD, with disks the size they are nowadays, isn't something that common

Most hardware sellers here in Siberia let you customise your system right at the counter. Some even don't void the warranty on preinstalled components if you modify it later. Never imagined this could be a problem elsewhere.

Still, having multiple disks is generally a good idea. At least until the blessed times to come when home users will have an affordable backup solution once again.