Move /var to another partition

[Toucan]

Having failed to extend an ext3 partition due to the swap partition being immediately after it I'm considering creating an extra partition after the swap file and copying contents of the /var directory to the new partition and then mounting the new partition on /var.

Is this likely to work successfully?

Will symlinks be preserved?

If I then unmount the partition at any point will the original data in the original /var still be there?


vds debian lenny

[falko]

Originally Posted by Toucan

Having failed to extend an ext3 partition due to the swap partition being immediately after it I'm considering creating an extra partition after the swap file and copying contents of the /var directory to the new partition and then mounting the new partition on /var.

Is this likely to work successfully?

I don't see any problems.

Originally Posted by Toucan

Will symlinks be preserved?

I think so, but am not 100% sure. You will have to test (also check if hidden files (starting with a dot, like .htaccess) are copied).

Originally Posted by Toucan

If I then unmount the partition at any point will the original data in the original /var still be there?

Yes - if you don't delete or format the original partition.