At a server that I only have access via ssh and vnc to (which means no booting from a "live" CD/DVD is possible), I would like to shrink the partition assigned to /var (in order to free some space for an additional partition). What would a good and safe way to do it?
Solution (based on David Spillet answer, provided that you have enough space on / to accommodate a copy of /var):
- stop anything that is using /var where possible
- remount /var readonly for good measure mount -f -oremount,ro /var (didn't seem to have any effect for me)
- copy /var to / under a different name with mkdir /vartmp; cp -av /var/* /vartmp/
- comment out the entry for /var in /etc/fstab
- reboot
- move things around with mv /var /varmount; mv /vartmp /var
- reboot, partition
- uncomment the entry for /var in /etc/fstap
- reboot