From owner-freebsd-stable Mon Mar 5 14: 9:22 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from ptavv.es.net (ptavv.es.net [198.128.4.29]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDB4A37B71A for ; Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:09:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from oberman@ptavv.es.net) Received: from ptavv.es.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with ESMTP id f25M9DL22452 for ; Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:09:13 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <200103052209.f25M9DL22452@ptavv.es.net> To: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Annoying gotcha with soft updates Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 14:09:13 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I have recently run into what appears to be a small gotcha (not exactly a bug) with the use of soft updates on the root partition. This could also apply to the /usr partition, as well, I suppose, but not as likely there. I have my laptop configured with the normal 50 MB root partition. I also have enabled soft updates on root. This all works very nicely except when I update my system. I can't so an installworld with soft updates turned on. I invariably get a failure with the root partition full. If I turn off soft updates, the installworld runs fine. I believe the problem lies in the way soft updates deals with deleted files. It seems to only add them to the free space on a periodic basis. I delete a VERY large file and I don't see the free space increase for a while. My root partition typically runs about 75-80% full, but the space used climbs when /sbin files are installed followed by the inevitable. With soft updates turned off, I don't see this happen. Unless I have mis-analyzed something, it might be advisable to recommend 'tunefs -n disable /' after booting to single user mode if soft updates are running on the root partition. IS this the case or am I missing something? R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message