Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 11:59:50 +0100 From: Alex de Kruijff <freebsd@akruijff.dds.nl> To: Olaf Greve <o.greve@axis.nl> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How to clear an improperly unreferenced file in multi-user mode? Message-ID: <20051105105950.GB837@Alex.lan> In-Reply-To: <436A09E9.5070905@axis.nl> References: <436A09E9.5070905@axis.nl>
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On Thu, Nov 03, 2005 at 02:00:25PM +0100, Olaf Greve wrote: > Hi, > > When doing some maintenance on my fall-back server I ran into something > weird. When running df it turned out /var was for 90% full. I then > manually deleted some files (as root over SSH), amongst which the > 'maillog' logfiles in /var/log, I also killed sendmail (as it was > generating the big log files, and at present I don't need to run it on > that machine), and just to be sure I created a new 'maillog file of 0 > length. You could use /etc/newsyslog.conf to solve the big log file problem. > So far so good, but after removing the maillog files and performing > another df call, the available size had not quite dropped as much as > expected and as should. DU reports the proper amount of disk usage, so I > performed an fsck. > > On /var it shows: > > 239511 files, 2365547 used, 4942027 free (37155 frags, 613109 blocks, > 0.5% fragmentation) > ** /dev/da0s1d (NO WRITE) > ** Last Mounted on /var > ** Phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes > ** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames > ** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity > ** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts > UNREF FILE I=48134 OWNER=root MODE=100640 > SIZE=322792549 MTIME=Nov 3 13:46 2005 > CLEAR? no > > > Now, of course one way to get rid of that big sucker is to boot the > machine in single user mode and run fsck again, however, the box is > nowhere near me and I cannot go down to the city where the machine is > anytime soon (besides: this is far from an urgent issue). So, I was > wondering about a thing: rather than doing a remote reboot and hope that > fsck will clear it up in the booting process (if it does that at all, > that is), I was wondering if there's a way to fix this when running in > multi user mode. > > Does anyone know how (if possible) to achieve this, or do I have to > reboot the machine in single user mode after all? I've done it in the past. First kill as much programms that use /var. Then umount /var and let fsck have a go at it. This may result in some core dumps. Then reboot. > > PS: Will it perhaps be possible to manually unmount /var, then fsck -y > it, and then remount it, or will that cause the machine to lock me out > (or perform other undesired behaviour)? I don't beleave it will lock you out. It may not let you login again do. It would be a good idea to have fysical access so you can press cntr-alt-delete -- Alex Please copy the original recipients, otherwise I may not read your reply. Howto's based on my ppersonal use, including information about setting up a firewall and creating traffic graphs with MRTG http://www.kruijff.org/alex/FreeBSD/
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