Use /tmp for application storage, proof of concept
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It is no secret that the 16MB flash versions of the onion omega leave a lot to be desired when working with python or node.
On my omega 1, after node is installed I'm left with 1.7MB of space remaining. This is a decent amount if you are building your entire code base. You must be very careful which external packages you choose to use, that 1.7MB can run out really quickly. I know this from experience.
Now to start, I'm not sure if I'm lazy or just bored, one of the two is my excuse for doing this. I've been working on an existing project for the past couple of days and ran out of space on the Omega. Instead of using a USB stick and pivot overlay, I am using /tmp, which I believe is ram space.
Obviously ram gets cleared during a reboot or power cycle, so it's kinda hard to run your code when it doesn't exist.
Enter init.d....
I have created an init.d script that does a git pull on a repo in to /tmp. After a successful pull, the script also launches the application. User specific settings are kept in /root to maintain some amount of persistence.
While my omega_garage project is running, /tmp usage is at 22% and fairly steady.
Depending on your projects requirements, this may be a viable solution for people that don't want to setup pivot overlay, people that don't have extra USB sticks lying around, or if you are like me and didn't want to pull the ladder out to climb up and insert a USB stick.
I have been running this in my garage for 3 days, there does not seem to be any ill side effects.
Please let me know what you think of this idea, or any potential downfalls to this approach.
Happy coding!