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Date:      Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:23:27 -0400
From:      "Troy Settle" <troy@picus.com>
To:        "Jeff Gray" <jwg2@adsl-63-201-55-220.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: df -  du leakage
Message-ID:  <NIEBLEDADLBOBAJFKPHDGEGDCAAA.troy@picus.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10006050600001.19198-100000@adsl-63-201-55-220.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net>

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Jeff,

I'm suprised you didn't see a couple different threads from me having
smililar problems.

What's happening is this:

Something moves/renames/deletes an open log file.  The filename is gone, but
the inode is never released.  In fact, the process that has the file open
will continue to write to it.

Killing the process *after* the fact doesn't work in all situations because
the inode and file still exist, even if it's not in the directory listing.
Trust me, I've had this happen, and in an attempt to fix it, I'v e taken
down *every* process possible, and nothing worked.  I had to boot to single
user mode and run an fsck manually.

If you want to rotate a log file manually or from your own script, you need
to follow a few rules.  I'll use apache for an example:

#!/bin/sh
foo=`date +'%Y%m%d'`
# rename the file
mv /var/log/httpd-access.log /var/log/httpd-access.$foo
# tell apache to close/reopen it's files
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/httpd.pid`
# do what you will with the now-out-of-service log file
webalize /var/log/httpd-access.$foo
[gzip|rm|mv] /var/log/httpd-access.$foo [/some/other/location]

Other programs might behave differently.  For example, (cistron) radiusd
opens and closes it's files for every write.  You can safely delete the
detail files without causing damage to the filesystem, though I would
reccomend that you rename it first (the next write will create a new detail
file).

HTH,

-Troy


** -----Original Message-----
** From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
** [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Jeff Gray
** Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 9:08 AM
** To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
** Subject: df - du leakage
**
**
** Could not find an answer in the archives, good explanations of what is
** going on by Doug Barton but no hint on how to find the difference.
**
** I have been monitoring the difference between
** df  [Used storage on /var mount point]
**    and
** du /var
**
** The difference in result is fine, but the difference is growing.
**  That is,
** more and more of /var is being Used according to df, which apparently
** shows the correct amount as it monitors the fs.  du is not telling me
** where the leakage is occuring.
**
** I assume if one can find the process that is doing this then the process
** can be killed, freeing the space again from the fs.
**
** Thanks in advance
** Jeff
**
**
**
**
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