Linux file systems follow directory hierarchy system. The topmost directory is known as the root and the other subdirectories constitute to make directory hierarchy. The directory structure is unified and is same for all devices and partitions. Each subdirectory has a specific structure and purpose.
One of the important subdirectory is /var. This directory holds files which are of variable file storage. This means that its data keeps changing while the system is in use. This directory is frequently mounted as an individual file system under /.
/var directory contains data that is dynamic in nature. It includes many directories which comprise variable contents. Where /var/spool is used to store queued up information for processes like printing, /var/run file holds information about currently going process IDs. /var/log stores logging information and /var/mail saves incoming and outgoing mails.
One of the negative points of /var directory based file system is that it gets full very quikly. In such cases, application and system may show performance degradation. Also, the file system may corrupt as a result of which it may fail to mount. /var directory can get corrupt due to rapidly changing size. To resolve the issue, we may need to reinstall the whole system. Hence it is required to always maintain complete data backup. If such backup is not present, we can use Linux Recovery tools to carry out Data Recovery Linux.
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