Spooling Space

Spooling space is the amount of disk space that is used to store and process requests in the print queue. Spooling space is the single most important factor to consider when deciding which systems to designate as print servers. When users submit files for printing, the files are stored in the /var/spool/lp directory until they have been printed. The size of the /var directory depends on the size of the disk and how the disk is partitioned. Spooling space can be allocated in the /var directory on the print server hard disk, or mounted from a file server and accessed over the network.

If /var is not created as a separate file system, the /var directory uses space in the root (/) file system, which is likely to be insufficient.