Introduction to Linux partitions

For Windows users, the operating system must be installed in the same partition. It is a commercial software! So you have no choice! For Red Hat Linux, you have a lot of options. You can install the system files in several zones (the loading point must be specified ), it can also be installed in the same partition (the loading point is "/"). Next, let's take a look at which partitions can be created (only a few commonly used columns ).

/Boot partition, which contains the kernel of the operating system and the files to be used during system startup. It is necessary to create this partition, because most PCs are subject to BIOS restrictions, moreover, if you have a separate/boot partition, the computer can still start even if the primary root partition has a problem. The partition size is about 50 mb-100mb. However, if you want to use LILO to start the Red Hat Linux system, the partitions containing/boot must be completely less than cylindrical 1023. Because the data after 8 GB cannot be read by Lilo, Red Hat Linux should be installed within 8 GB.

/Usr partition: the place where the software is stored in Red Hat Linux. If possible, allocate the maximum space to it.

/Home partition is the location of your home directory. The size of this partition depends on the number of users. If multiple users use a computer together, this partition is completely necessary. Moreover, root users can well control the use of computers by common users, such as using hard disks for users or user groups, restrict common users to which files to access. In fact, it is necessary for a single user to establish this partition. If this partition is not available, you can only log on to the system as the root user. This is dangerous, because the root user has absolute right to use the system, once you misoperate the system, the trouble will arise.

/Var/log partition is the System Log Record Partition. If this independent partition is set up, even if the system log file has a problem, they also do not affect the primary partitions of the operating system.

/Tmp partition, used to store temporary files. This is necessary for multi-user systems or network servers. In this way, even if a large number of temporary files are generated during the running of the program, or the user has performed wrong operations on the system, other parts of the file system are still safe. Because this part of the file system is still subject to read/write operations, it usually occurs faster than other parts.

/Bin partition, which stores standard system utilities.

/Dev partition to store device files.

/OPT partition, which stores optional installed software.

/Sbin partition, which stores standard system management files.

This section describes several common partitions. Generally, we need a swap partition, A/boot partition, A/usr partition, A/home partition, and A/var/log partition. Of course, there is no rule. It is determined by yourself. But remember that there must be at least two partitions, one swap partition and one/partition.

Linux Partition Rules
1. device management in Linux, each hardware device is mapped to a system file, which is no exception for hard disks, optical drives, and other ide or SCSI devices.
Linux allocates a file consisting of HD prefixes to various ide devices, while a file consisting of SD prefixes to various SCSI devices.

For example, for the first ide device, Linux is defined as hda; for the second ide device, HDB; and so on. The SCSI devices should be SDA, SDB, and SDC.

2. to partition the number of partitions, you must operate on each hardware device. This may be an IDE hard disk or a SCSI hard disk.

For each hard disk (IDE or SCSI) device, Linux assigns a serial number ranging from 1 to 16, which indicates the Partition Number on the hard disk.

For example, the first partition of the first IDE Hard Disk maps hda1 in Linux, and the second partition is called hda2. For SCSI hard disks, such as sda1 and sdb1.

3. the role of each partition is stipulated in Linux that each hard disk device can have a maximum of four primary partitions (including the extended partitions). Any extended partition occupies a primary Partition Number, that is, in a hard disk, there are a maximum of four primary and extended partitions.

For earlier DOS and Windows (versions earlier than Windows 2000), the system recognizes only one primary partition. You can add a logical drive letter (logical partition) to the extended partition, further refine the partition.

A primary partition is used by a computer to start the operating system. Therefore, the boot of each operating system, or a boot program, should be stored in the primary partition.

This is the biggest difference between primary and extended partitions and logical partitions.

This is the best example when we specify the bootloader for Linux installation and boot on the primary partition.

Linux requires that the primary partition (or extended partition) occupies the first four numbers from 1 to 16.

Taking the first IDE hard disk as an example, the primary partition (or extended partition) occupies hda1, hda2, hda3, and hda4, while the logical partition occupies 12 numbers from hda5 to hda16.

Therefore, each Hard Disk in Linux has a total of 16 partitions.

For logical partitions, Linux requires that they must be built on extended partitions (also in DOS and Windows systems), rather than on the primary partition.

Therefore, we can see that the extended partition provides a more flexible partition mode, but it cannot be used as a boot for the operating system. Apart from the differences between the above partitions, we can simply treat them equally.

4. Partition indicators

For each LINUX partition, the partition size and type are the most important indicators.

The size of the capacity is easy to understand, but the partition type is not so easy to accept.

The partition type specifies the format of the file system above the partition.

Linux supports a variety of File System formats, including our familiar FAT32, fat16, NTFS, HP-UX, and a variety of Linux native and Linux swap partition types

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