If you have a program/process that is accessing a file. And you remove that file, the file is removed from the directory, but the blocks that make up that file are not removed until they are released from the process.
So if you rotate logs incorrectly and don't cause your programs to reopen the files, then the log files will keep logging into this already deleted file, filling up the disk, but you have no handle/name to access these disk blocks with. If you do a kill -1 on processes, they usually will reopen files. If nothing else, if you take your system down to single user and back up, you may find that the disk space is released. IE, rebooting will fix it if it is what I am saying. Jim Beard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: % Howdy folks, % % I'm working on a RedHat 7.3 system and am experiencing some strange % behavior. The /var partition keeps filling up. Since logs etc, get % written there I'm not surprised that it might fill up fast, however.... % df, tells me the partition is 2.5 gigs... when I started addressing % this problem the size of /var was 1.8 gig. I used 'du -h % --max-depth=1' so I so I could see the sizes of the first level of % directories etc... Now, when I find some files I can delete, say old % log files, maybe 300 Megs worth, and remove them, it takes about 30 % seconds for 'df' to show the space used as 100% on /var... I've % watched it go 96%, *pause for 2 seconds*, 97%, * pause for 2 more % seconds*, 98% .. etc ... So now I'm stuck, left with a 1.4 gig /var % directory, which df says is full of 2.5 gigs worth of stuff... and I % can't, for the life of me, figure out where this new data is being % written.... % % Any advice? % % % Jim Beard % counterclaim.com, Inc % http://www.counterclaim.com % http://openefm.sourceforge.net % (800) 264-8145 % % _______________________________________________ % EuG-LUG mailing list % [EMAIL PROTECTED] % http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug ----- John Sechrest . Helping people use . computers and the Internet . more effectively . . Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] . . http://www.peak.org/~sechrest _______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug
