[Linux] Combining partitions

[NV]

Hi,

I read your question in two separate ways depending on whether I focus 
on the first part or the later example.

If you are looking for the ability to dynamically reallocate space 
across "partitions", you can use Logical Volume Management (LVM2 to be 
precise). The disk(s) are partitioned using LVM tools to create logical 
volumes which can be dynamically resized at run time.

However, the example you gave suggests a different angle to the problem 
- how would you create a unified file system, so both /photos and /free 
look like one file system? If this is what you want, then unionfs is the 
way to go. Depending on how you configure unionfs, some files will end 
up in the partition belonging to /photos, others will end up in the 
partition belonging to /free. Each partition remains distinct and can be 
accessed independent of unionfs.

One solution works at the disk block level, another at the file system 
level.

Best,
NV
--


David Williams wrote:
>
> I know that I’ve heard about this in the past, but don’t recall the 
> exact name. It is possible to combine two separate partitions into one 
> larger ‘virtual’ partition right ? So, if I had the following:
>
> /photos
>
> /free
>
> How could I get /free to be an extension of /photos so that the space 
> from /free becomes available under the /photos partition ?
>
> Any help/pointers much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> ____________________________________________
>
> David Williams
>