I think that we should keep in mind that this is not about whether tmpfs for /tmp is good or bad, or it gives a 3-second performance gain when unpacking a tarball on /tmp, but about the sane default setting.
default settings are meant to be *sane* settings that prioritize stability over performance and ensure the system works on most of the cases, this are meant just for users that don't know anything (or care) about this settings. If you *know* what tmpfs is, and you think this can be good for your system: *just* *turn* *it* *on*!!, nothing prevents you from doing it. We are *not* talking about removing the "tmpfs for /tmp" feature from Debian But we are talking about whether is a *sane* thing to have this setting enabled by *default*. Just think about an user that just has a laptop with 3GB of ram and a 300GB HDD (this is probably one of the most common user-cases nowadays) This user knows nothing about tmpfs or partitions, or even knows how to use a shell. Its just a normal desktop user. He decides to give a try to Debian. He just downloads the Debian ISO image, burns it on a DVD and installs Debian on his laptop (just pressing next,next and next). What happens if tmpfs on /tmp is the default? * The user will end with a /tmp of 615M. * One day the user try to copy a DVD and he is unable to do it #665634 * One day the user try to stream a movie from youtube or vimeo and he is unable to do it #666096 * The user gives up with Debian and decides to go back to Windows. What happens if tmpfs on /tmp is *not* the default? * The user is happy with Debian because he can get things done and tells its friend about Debian. Regards! -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carlos Alberto Lopez Perez http://neutrino.es Igalia - Free Software Engineering http://www.igalia.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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