Very Computer

by **asoko..** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:04:23

I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
partition is about 1GB).
When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

Thanks for any ideas, Alex

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by **Chris Thomps** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:34:09

>I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
>partition is about 1GB).
>When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.

/proc is not part of your / partition. It's a separate (and virtual)
filing system.

Quote:>For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
>directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
>up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

The kernel is responsible for managing processes: /proc gives you
a filing-system-oriented view into their state. Read the proc(4)
man page.

When investigating where space is going to in a filing system,
make sure you don't cross filing system boundaries. For example,
use -mount in find(1), -d in du(1m), etc.

Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 [at] cam.ac.uk

by **Barry Margoli** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:36:08

>I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
>partition is about 1GB).
>When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
>For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
>directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
>up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

/proc doesn't contain real directories or files, and doesn't take up any
space. /proc is handled by a special filesystem type that gives you a view
into process state.

--

Genuity, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.

by **asoko..** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:37:33

I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
partition is about 1GB).
When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

Thanks for any ideas, Alex

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http://www.deja.com/

by **Kurt J. Lanz** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 06:04:34

> I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
> partition is about 1GB).
> When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
> For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
> directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
> up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

> Thanks for any ideas, Alex

The /proc "filesystem" is a mapping of the running
processes on your system. It isn't a disk, doesn't spin,
and takes no real room. In other words, find something
else to clean up.

by **Barry Margoli** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 06:11:12

Quote:> In other words, find something
>else to clean up.

Yeah, like all the stuff that's been written to /dev/null over the years.
It must really be piling up. :;

--

Genuity, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.

by **Alan Stang** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 07:33:05

/dev/zero is the one that gets me. I want to edit it to remove some of
the junk in it, but no editor can handle it...

-- Alan

>> In other words, find something
>> else to clean up.

> Yeah, like all the stuff that's been written to /dev/null over the years.
> It must really be piling up. :;

by **Darren Dunha** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 08:40:34

>> I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
>> partition is about 1GB).
>> When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
>> For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
>> directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
>> up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

>> Thanks for any ideas, Alex

> The /proc "filesystem" is a mapping of the running
> processes on your system. It isn't a disk, doesn't spin,
> and takes no real room. In other words, find something
> else to clean up.

A way I often do it is...

# du -dk / > /tmp/rootsizes
# sort -n /tmp/rootsizes

The big stuff is at the bottom...

--

Unix System Administrator Taos - The SysAdmin Company
Got some Dr Pepper? San Francisco, CA bay area
< Please move on, ...nothing to see here, please disperse >

by **Lon Stowe** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 12:26:44

>>I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
>>partition is about 1GB).

[good stuff on /proc deleted....]

Quote:
>When investigating where space is going to in a filing system,
>make sure you don't cross filing system boundaries. For example,
>use -mount in find(1), -d in du(1m), etc.

And if you absolutely can't find where the blocks went,
try booting single user mode and unmounting any exported
file systems [and possibly even /usr] to see if someone
has written junk all over your / file system that gets
covered up by the mounted filesystem. Not that common, but
guaranteed to drive you nuts when it happens.

by **Lon Stowe** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 12:28:25

>> In other words, find something
>>else to clean up.

>Yeah, like all the stuff that's been written to /dev/null over the years.
>It must really be piling up. :;

Wait until some doofus creates a package remove script that
removes /dev/null and it gets created as a normal file.

by **Chris Thomps** » Mon, 05 Feb 2001 09:35:07

>>> In other words, find something
>>>else to clean up.

>>Yeah, like all the stuff that's been written to /dev/null over the years.
>>It must really be piling up. :;

> Wait until some doofus creates a package remove script that
> removes /dev/null and it gets created as a normal file.

I've told this story before, but maybe it's time for a repetition.

A colleague of mine added user "oracle" to group "sys", so that he could run
jobs that both dumped his Oracle databases and (via ufsdump) some related ufs
filing systems (/dev/rdsk/* devices having group=sys and group read access).

This was in the era when the /dev directory had group=sys and group-*write* access.

When he next ran the Oracle installer, and was asked where he wanted some diagnostic
output sent, he specified "/dev/null" (perfectly standard practice).

Sometime later he observed various strange effects, which in due course he traced
to the fact that /dev/null was now a regular file with curious contents.

It turned out that the Oracle installer had helpfully removed the "old" /dev/null
and recreated it. If it had failed, of course, it would not have complained, but
just used the existing /dev/null as intended.

There's probably a moral, but it may be difficult to say exactly what it is.

Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 [at] cam.ac.uk

by **Stefaan A Eecke** » Mon, 05 Feb 2001 23:37:14

Quote:> A way I often do it is...

> # du -dk / > /tmp/rootsizes
> # sort -n /tmp/rootsizes

> The big stuff is at the bottom...

And of course, one could be pedantic and notice that

# du -dk / | sort -n > /tmp/rootsizes

is the UNIXy way to do this.

Sorry, having a rotten day :-)

--
Stefaan
--
How's it supposed to get the respect of management if you've got just
one guy working on the project? It's much more impressive to have a
battery of programmers slaving away. -- Jeffrey Hobbs (comp.lang.tcl)

by **Casper H.S. Dik - Network Security Engine** » Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:45:22

[[ PLEASE DON'T SEND ME EMAIL COPIES OF POSTINGS ]]

>I noticed that my / partition is getting full (it's ~90% full,
>partition is about 1GB).
>When i look around i noticed that /proc is quite big.
>For example, i'm running 5 Oracle databases, and there are 77 sub-
>directories with oracle owner. What process is responsible for cleaning
>up this sub-directory, and is there is anything i can do about its size.

The solaris FAQ says:

5.58) What is /proc? Can I safely remove the large files there?

The /proc filesystem is a memory image of each process; it's a
virtual filesystem that occupies no disk space.

/proc is used for programs such as ps(1) and top(public domain)
and all the tools in /usr/proc/bin that can be used to examine
process state.

The only way to remove /proc is to unmount it, but that will break
a lot of useful programs.

--- end of excerpt from the FAQ

The most recently posted version of the FAQ is available from
<http://www.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2/>
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

by **asoko..** » Wed, 07 Feb 2001 00:09:07

Thanks for all the usefull info on my problem,
i will be following up on suggestions this week.

Alex

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Very Computer

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up

/proc size, and "who" is responsible for cleaning up