CRON Gets Deleted – Using tmpfs for /var/spool on SSD in Linux

You know it – computers come with the solid state drives these days and therefore you search for ways to optimize their lifetime and reduce their tear and wear.

Many Linux websites tell you to optimize /etc/fstab by putting /var/spool directory on ramdisk (using tmpfs – temporary filesystem) like this:

tmpfs /var/spool tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0  0

What they however forget to tell you is that this way crontab (or cron) will not work for ordinary users as the cron will gets deleted on every reboot.

Seriously, don’t do it. Just remove this line, keep others, the SSD tear&wear will not happen just beacuase you have your /var/spool (and crontab) on your drive.