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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.sprintlink.net!news.azstarnet.com!news.cais.net!news.atlatl.com!aztec.atlatl.com!crowland From: "Craig H. Rowland" <crowland@atlatl.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Subject: Re: file system full Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 17:26:35 -0400 Organization: Atlatl Corporation. Lines: 50 Message-ID: <Pine.BSD/.3.91.950818171814.21538A-100000@aztec.atlatl.com> References: <3vrse7$a3j@raffles.technet.sg> <3vska8$2l7@aldous.gdirect.com> <3vt7p3$56v@salt.ncinter.net> <40gbm7$ddv@hamlet.m-u-b.de> <DD91tK.JKK@ptavv.ka.sub.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: aztec.atlatl.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In-Reply-To: <DD91tK.JKK@ptavv.ka.sub.org> On Sun, 13 Aug 1995, Ralf Wenk wrote: > Toni Mueller (toni@hamlet.m-u-b.de) wrote: > : Ian Smith (iansmith@pepper.ncinter.net) wrote on 4 Aug 1995 13:36:35 GMT: > : > System Administrator (root@aldous.gdirect.com) wrote: > : > > It means you should get rid of MFS. > > : > Is this a general recomendation? I got rid of the mfs partition on > : > my news server, but kept it on the user machine. Currently the mfs > > : Oooops, why ? > > : So far I never had problems with MFS, or at least no problems I would > : attribute to it. My /tmp is some 30 megs, and I had it even larger before. > [...] > > The original problem looks like there is a appliction (in the background?) > running, which fills the MFS /tmp - hence the file-system-full message - > and then removes the file(s). So a later df(1) shows a mostly unused /tmp. > The solution should be somehow like: > - idetify the application > - estimate the needed FS space > - decide wether there is enough RAM and swap area to increase the size of > the /tmp MFS or > change the application to use /var/tmp instead of /tmp or > switch to a disk based /tmp > > -- > Ralf Wenk - ralf@ptavv.ka.sub.org > > I have found on one occassion that a rogue application that causes the mysterious /tmp full and yet does not show up when you investigate is none other than sendmail. Perhaps a (very) large message or messages that sendmail attempts to write out of the queue periodically that fills the partition, fails because it is out of space, and then removes the file. This happens to cause a syslogd alert (if you have it set up to do so), and when you go to take a look the files are gone. For a busy system I would recommend a /tmp of at least 100 MB. There are many applications that use /tmp as a holding area for processing and chances are good that they could eventually fill the partition. I have never had a problem with MFS and I always put a swap partition on each drive I have on a system. Resources I've read indicate that this will increase system throughput by distributing the swap load. Craig Rowland nerd@atlatl.com