From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 20 13:53:20 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9CCA16A4CE for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:53:20 +0000 (GMT) Received: from wjv.com (fl-65-40-24-38.sta.sprint-hsd.net [65.40.24.38]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 591BC43D2F for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:53:20 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bv@bilver.wjv.com) Received: from bilver.wjv.com (localhost.wjv.com [127.0.0.1]) by wjv.com (8.12.11/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j0KDrE7R065781 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:53:14 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from bv@bilver.wjv.com) Received: (from bv@localhost) by bilver.wjv.com (8.12.11/8.13.1/Submit) id j0KDrESg065780 for freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:53:14 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from bv) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:53:14 -0500 From: Bill Vermillion To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20050120135314.GA65676@wjv.com> References: <20050120120114.27CE616A4E7@hub.freebsd.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050120120114.27CE616A4E7@hub.freebsd.org> Organization: W.J.Vermillion / Orlando - Winter Park ReplyTo: bv@wjv.com User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.8 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.0.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.1 (2004-10-22) on bilver.wjv.com Subject: Re: Very large directory X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: bv@wjv.com List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:53:21 -0000 > > From: "Phillip Salzman" > Subject: Very large directory > I have a pair of servers that act as SMTP/AV gateways. It > seems that even though we've told the AV software not to store > messages, it is anyway. > > They've been running for a little while now - and recently we've > noticed a lot of disk space disappearing. Shortly after that, a > simple du into our /var/spool returned a not so nice error: > du: fts_read: Cannot allocate memory > No matter what command I run on that directory, I just don't > seem to have enough available resources to show the files let > alone delete them (echo *, ls, find, rm -rf, etc.) Even echo * sorts the output, and the sorting consumes a large amount of resources. Try and ls with a "-f" option. To prove it to yourself take any directory and perform echo * and then do the same with ls -f I first noticed this years ago when on an old SysV I had a directory that took 5 minutes to display and the ls -f was quite fast. > End of freebsd-stable Digest, Vol 95, Issue 8 -- Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com