no more hslv format ?

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Jim,

> > Well, `df -t tmpfs' will probably show /tmp is a tmpfs so you could
> > `--output /tmp' and you should see its intermediate files, and the
> > final file, only appear there.  `--command' could then move that
> > final file to the SSD, or run a conversion command that writes to
> > the SSD and then removes the tmpfs input.
>
> the df command listed various 'locations'. These included
>
>     tmpfs  815696   1352  814334   /run
>     none   4078460  0     4078460  /run/shm
>     none   102400   8     102392   /run/usr

/run/shm is half your RAM, as I'd expect.  I'd also expect /tmp to be
there.  What does `df -T /tmp' show?  Perhaps that's using SSD for all
temporary files and you might not want that given your concerns.

> Inside /run/usr I did find a directory for my user id and could use
> that as the user.

But it's deliberately constrained to be small.

> However I don't know what the /run/shm is for, so need to do some
> finding out...

POSIX's communication methods of shared memory and semaphores;
shm_overview(7), and sem_overview(7).  Again, not what you want.

> I did set up an explict ramdisc on another machine ages ago by adding
> a line to the /etc/fstab file. But that fixed the size to 256 MB,
> which in this context is tiny. System monitor says I have 8GB of ram.

That's the right idea.  Here, the system has /tmp be a tmpfs that is
half the RAM, like the `shm' one above.  They share one single half.
`systemctl status tmp.mount' is what creates it on some systems these
days, not an /etc/fstab entry.

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy