Phantom /var full messages

[Sergey Zaharchenko]

On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 11:23:11AM -0400,
 Jerry McAllister probably wrote:
> 
> No, you are running out of space!   DF has nothing to do with it.
> 
> If one of the processes grabs some file space and then unlinks, it
> is still holding/using that space and probably needs it, even if 
> one method (df) shows it used and another (du) does not.   Don't be 
> fooled by the red herring of du and df disagreeing.  Some process is 
> trying to use that space and you need more of it.   
> 

Correct. du can only show the `named' space (the size of files which are
not unlinked-but-open).

One of the ways to find out what has the largest files open is

# fstat | grep /var | sort -r -n -k 8 | head

(gives you the `top ten list' of the largest open files and the
processes which use them).

If the problem is in a program holding lots of small files open, then a
different script (utilizing uniq -c) could be devised.

> If you are doing database stuff, then I can't imagine having a /var
> of less than a few GB, unless you move a lot of stuff out of /var and
> create links.   See some recent previous posts on the subject.

31GB is `a few GB' in some sense.

> 
> ////jerry
> 
> > 
> > Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
> > Adjunct Information Security Officer
> > The University of Texas at Dallas
> > AVIEN Founding Member
> > http://www.utdallas.edu
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"

-- 
DoubleF
Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them
first for seven hours, they always come out tender.
		-- W. C. Fields
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20040910/119f7339/attachment.bin