Not necessarily. If a directory's permissions were dr-xr--r-- 1 root wheel ..... and you were not root then you would get that I'm sure. The thing is that although this has 'd' for directory, the lack of the 'x' means that you can't search (list) it, but I could be wrong here as I haven't looked at this whole permissions thing for years.
You could download this free application from OMNI which should show you where everything's gone: http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/ This may be handy too for visual feedback: http://www.derlien.com/ Cheers, Stephen On 17 Sep 2010, at 10:48, Ben Rubinstein wrote: > Stephen > > Thanks for replying. > > If the issue related to permissions, wouldn't the error be "Permission > denied"? I get the same error using sudo. > > Interesting you get it too. > > The problem in my system was indeed elsewhere (mds gone mad again) - but > meanwhile this issue that I've now stumbled over makes it impossible for me > to run du over my disk, which is a bugger.... > > Cheers, > > Ben > > > On 16/09/2010 16:42, Stephen Watson wrote: >> I wouldn't start deleting anything yet! >> >> My UNIX knowledge on character and block devices ('c' or 'b' at the start of >> an ls listing shows this) is a bit rusty these days, but a quick look on my >> iMac reveals what I'd thought that 0, 1 and 2 are the same file (or inode to >> be precise) as are 3, 4 and 5. The -i option to ls will verify this for you. >> >> An ls for me on those directories also produces the same error which is no >> surprise as they have only read permissions (as do mine) and you need 'x' to >> allow searching of directories. >> >> I imagine that all here is in order and your problem lies elsewhere, but >> your best bet would be to look in the system/console logs using the console >> application to see if something is looping and writing out error messages >> repeatedly to disk. That's how we used to fill up our customers' hard disks >> when I was at work :-) >> >> Regards, >> >> Stephen >> >> On 15 Sep 2010, at 11:02, Ben Rubinstein wrote: >> >>> Attempting to track down a sudden space gobbler (I start the day with 50GB, >>> and by the afternoon get warnings of disk full; restart and all the space >>> is reclaimed) I ran "sudo du -sh" from the root immediately after restart, >>> so that I can run it again later and get a clue to where the data is going. >>> >>> But du fails with this message: >>> du: Can't follow symlink cycle from ./dev/fd/3 to ./dev/fd/3 >>> >>> Investigating /dev/fd I find it looks like this: >>> >>> $ ls -la >>> total 0 >>> crw--w---- 1 benr tty 16, 0 15 Sep 08:32 0 >>> crw--w---- 1 benr tty 16, 0 15 Sep 08:32 1 >>> crw--w---- 1 benr tty 16, 0 15 Sep 08:32 2 >>> dr--r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 15 Sep 08:22 3 >>> dr--r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 15 Sep 08:22 4 >>> dr--r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 15 Sep 08:22 5 >>> >>> $ ls -la 3 >>> ls: 3: Bad file descriptor >>> >>> $ ls -la 4 >>> ls: 4: Bad file descriptor >>> >>> $ ls -la 5 >>> ls: 5: Bad file descriptor >>> >>> Is this a very bad thing, or just mildly messy? As /dev/fd/3 (and 4 and 5) >>> are evidently not doing anything useful can I just delete them so that they >>> don't get in the way of du, or is this a symptom of something more serious >>> that I need to investigate first? >>> >>> (NB: I've run a full Disk Utility verify&repair - and there was stuff, >>> beyond permissions, to repair - but it made no difference to /dev/fd.) >>> >>> TIA, >>> >>> Ben > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB. > "I am both idealist and realist. For there is no point in ideals if they cannot be realised." - Unknown -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
