How to decide how much space to allocate for different directories while installing Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution?

Question

Normally when I install Ubuntu or any other desktop distributions of Linux I let the installer do its thing with minimal interference from me. In the last couple of installations I noticed that I frequently run out of space in my home directory which makes me wonder how do I decide how much space to allocate to all the directories under root '/'.

Is there a hard and fast rule or do I have to look into a crystal ball do guess what my needs could be in the future?

Answer 1

Use lvm2, and start out with sane defaults (I use 6gb for /, 2gb for home and no swap (8GB RAM))

lvm2 ensures you will be able to allocate/resize more as needed and where needed.

I use ext4 (after a long period of favouring xfs because of it's online resize; however ext4 allows you to shrink fs-es as well, though (often?) not online; big win)

The alternative and server install disks have long since supported lvm2, grub2 also supports loading from lvm2 boot (though not on striped volumes), so it is generall y a joyfull experience these days.

Answer 2

For desktop purpose, I usually allocate:

• 1-time up to 2-times more than physical memory for the swap partition
• 8 up to 12 GiB for the system
• rest for the /home

It is important and practical to separate /home and the rest of the system.