Increasing the size of a partition

[mistrynitesh]

I have a 2 gb partition for /usr , which is almost full. How do I increase the size of this partition? Can gparted do this? Will it reformat the existing partition and I will lose the data in there? Or else can I create a new partition somewhere else with the same mount point (/usr)? Please suggest.
Tried looking for related information in forums but nothing similar to my problem.

(guess I should have put this question in boot/install category)

[Rog131]

Re: Increasing the size of a partition

Hmm - Do you really mean /usr

From: Linux's directory structure - 1.2
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linuxdir.html

< /usr >

This directory contains user applications and a variety of other things for them, like their source codes, and pictures, docs, or config files they use. /usr is the largest directory on a Linux system, and some people like to have it on a separate partition.

Hmm #2 - http://itinfo.mit.edu/answer?id=7236

Q: Should I create a separate /usr partition?
A: Experience has shown that, over time, the relative sizes of root? and /usr change in big and unpredictable ways. Keeping /usr and root together in one big partition is what's recommended these days.

Can gparted do this? Will it reformat the existing partition and I will lose the data in there? Or else can I create a new partition somewhere else with the same mount point (/usr)?

Yes - gparted can do that. It shouldn't format existing partition. Yes, you could make new /usr partition. Copy data from old partition to the new one. And finally change mount point (fstab)

Gparted Documentation
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/documentation.php

HOW TO RESIZE PARTITION
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry...e/resizing.htm

Running GParted from a Linux system is the same as running it from the livecd, BUT the livecd doesn't mount any drive ! If you run GParted from a running system, you can't work on THIS system.

Resize /usr partition without resinstall
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/f...er/066995.html

> Is it possible to get more space for /usr by either allocating space
> from /home or by providing a symlink to a partition on home?
>
Worthwhile suggestions for re-configuring need disklabel output.
But you can easily move some parts some parts (trees) of /usr elswhere
and symlink back to the normal position in /usr. In particular the
/usr/ports and /usr/src trees come to mind

About symlinks:
Topic: linking folders across accounts
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086040.0



NOTE
from GParted FAQ
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/faq.php

2 : Is it safe?
Short answer: Yes, it is safe
By using the official tools for each filesystem and performing extensive checks before any actual operation i think GParted is as safe as it can/should be.

Of course you have to realize I cannot give any guarantees, so you should probably make a backup of important data before toying with your partitions.

[mistrynitesh]

Re: Increasing the size of a partition

Hmm - Do you really mean /usr

Yes, I mean /usr

From: Linux's directory structure - 1.2
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linuxdir.html

< /usr >

This directory contains user applications and a variety of other things for them, like their source codes, and pictures, docs, or config files they use. /usr is the largest directory on a Linux system, and some people like to have it on a separate partition.

It was actually from this page that I had decided to make a separate partition for /usr. I hadn't expected it to grow so large anyways.

Didn't know about the second site though

[mistrynitesh]

Re: Increasing the size of a partition

Success! 8)
created a 'swap' partition in some space that I grabbed from windows' empire and extended the '/usr' partition that was freed

thanks for the info