On Fri, Aug 07, 2015 at 11:44:36AM -0400, Ted Unangst wrote: > Quartz wrote: > > > The general answer to your question, however, is the "growfs" command. > > > growfs will let you expand an off-line file system with additional space > > > immediately adjoining the end of the partition. > > > > OK.... that's the general answer providing we replace the disk with a > > bigger one though, right? Is there a good way to use the same disk? > > Again, the issue is not that the disk is full, but that's it half empty > > and split up in a way that we can't really use the space. > > you need to use disklabel to delete some of the existing paritions. > > this is the kind of procedure you really don't want to do without backups, and > if you have backups, restoring them may be easier. > > there is no easy way to shrink or move filesystems, only copying their > contents. depending on where /var is, your ability to grow it may be limited. You could also make a raw image of the disk and run a copy of that image in qemu on another computer, something which would give you a chance to do some experimenting with growfs(8) & friends without having to risk anything. Grantet success, you could even transfer the changed image back to the original disk, or another disk if you dont't trust the original image, and test it live on the machine in question.
I find the issue interresting and hope you report back if you decide to give your repartitioning-project a shot. Good luck, Erling
