Practical UNIX End-User Partitioning

I'm a Freenix end-user. This will be certainly different for you if you're, say, running a server.

BSD Partitioning
A BSD 'slice' has to be a primary partition.
128M	/	Or 100M
512M	swap	Minimum is 256M or 1:1 physical memory*
256M	/var	Or 300M
rest	/usr	2-3GB is typically enough.
500M	/home	Some recommend 100M / user. Some 500M / user.
/tmp -> /var/tmp		Or memory file system

Linux Partitioning
Either /boot or / has to be on a primary partition.
10M	/boot	This is optional. You know if you need a separate /boot.
250M	/	Minimum is 100M
512M	swap	Minimum is 256M or 1:1 physical memory*
500M	/var	?
rest	/usr	2GB minimum, 3GB or more recommended
500M	/home	Some recommend 100M / user. Some 500M / user.
/tmp ->/var/tmp

*Some systems are optimally configured if swap is at least 2 times physical memory, regardless of how much physical memory is installed. However, using 3 times your physical memory in swap will likely not be entirely unlike pulling teeth, and significant diminishing returns occur at about 2GB, so consider 2GB as the upper limit for the size of swap partitions.

How big should I make my /var partition?

You will know best, that is, after installation. However, it is important which BSD or Linux you are using. For example, all the BSD's use /var/tmp, unless otherwise specified, to decompress packages during installation. For some packages like OpenOffice, upwards of 300M of free space on /var is required. Debian behaves similarly. Read your operating system's documentation for details.

Notes

I prefer to err on the safe side. Hard disk space is cheap. It's better to have a partition that is too big than one that is too small and fills up unexpectedly. This is, of course, inappropriate for people who have limited disk space. They should consult their OS documentation. But, as a rule, you should have at least three partitions, /, swap, and /usr. Partitions such as /var can by symlinked to /usr/var, /home to /usr/home, etc. And you will probably not want to have less than a 12-16M swap partition even if you only have an 80M hard drive. You should always have a / partition, using the most conservative filesystem settings available on your platform.

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