Re: /var out of disk space, but not really

ckbcouture@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
HI.

So I have a problem with my /var partition. I am unable to write to it
and get "/var: write failed, file system is full" and "close failed:
[Errno 28] No space left on device" when I do.

If I look at disk usage using df, I get:

Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/ld0a 4585 2784 1571 63% /
/dev/ld0f 4851 4617 -8 100% /var
/dev/ld0e 9695 6129 3081 66% /usr
/dev/ld0g 9695 2872 6337 31% /home
/dev/ld0h 38788 9461 27386 25% /www
kernfs 0 0 0 100% /kern
procfs 0 0 0 100%
/usr/pkg/emul/linux/proc
elk:/www/staging 38788 10463 26384 28%
/www/staging
rhino:/www/production 268340 12743 241966 5%
/www/production

If I look at /var using du, I get:

srvrs01# du -sPm /var
1125 /var

Clearly there is a discrepancy here and I can't find anything to delete
to free up the disk space. Any ideas on what is wrong and what I can
do to fix it?

It could be that you have deleted the directory entry for an open file.
In such a case, the space taken up by the file won't be returned to the
filesystem until the file is closed (and thus, df(1) would show the
space as allocated), but the file (lacking a directory entry) won't
appear in a directory listing (and thus, du(1) won't show the space as
allocated).

Have you deleted any files (like those allocated by syslog) recently?
Have you recycled the processes that keep those files open?


--

Lew Pitcher, IT Specialist, Corporate Technology Solutions,
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)

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