fsck is failing to clean a filesystem

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 10 Feb 2016 20:11:03 +1100 (EST), Ian Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Feb 2016 22:10:14 -0800, Paul Beard wrote:
>  > > On Feb 9, 2016, at 9:14 PM, Ian Smith <smithi at nimnet.asn.au> wrote:
>  > > 
>  > > I know your problem is with /usr, but I 
>  > > find the fact that /var is full or too nearly so rather concerning, and 
>  > > wonder whether that might have contributed to your problem in some way, 
>  > > and whether freeing up some space there might yet help?
>  > 
>  > Yeah, itÿÿs a mess, running a full system in a 64Gb virtual disk is 
>  > probably asking for trouble. I think there is some cruft in /var 
>  > (databases that are no longer in use) that can be pitched.
> 
> 64GB should be plenty, depending on usage of course.  A full /var is a 
> worry, especially if it runs short of room for logging.

When fsck is running, it usually happens in a mode where only /
is mounted read-only, and all other file systems (such as /usr
or /var) are not. So I'd say that fsck doesn't do logging
somewhere into /var/log because it doesn't exist at that time.
Single user mode is a state of heavily reduced system functionality,
but usually sufficient for solving file system problems.



>  > > Also, does 'du /usr/lost+found' reveal anything?
>  > 
>  > It was full of stuff /usr/src, best I could make out. Not sure why it 
>  > all ended up in there.
> 
> Well at least /usr/src is easily replaced.  Might be worth just deleting 
> all that, though of course you need a read-write mount first .. perhaps
> after booting from a memstick or live CD?

Which is still risky, assuming that the file system has not
been marked clean.



> You might also check (before and after deleting anything) that /usr 
> isn't running short of inodes (df -hi)?

Good suggestion.



> Just stabbing in the dark .. scrambled filesystems are the pits!

And a good occassion to read more about UFS (McKusick et al.) - to
develop a better understanding of what's happening. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...