Re: Linux 2.0.30 loosing HD space?

Nigel Metheringham (Nigel.Metheringham@ThePLAnet.net)
Tue, 10 Jun 1997 14:01:18 +0100

Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be said:
} If you delete a file that's still opened by another process, the disk
} space won't be reclaimed until that process closes the file. This may
} be the reason.

Favourite way to achieve the above is this:-
tail -f /var/log/messages & # or some other log file
... # log out

The tail process stays there. If something rolls the log files the tail
process still sits there. If you compress the rolled log file there is
now a new compressed file and the old uncompressed file (which is
apparently deleted) both taking up disk space.

You can sometimes regain a lot of disk space by finding old tail processes
(or the like) and killing them! This is often why people see more disk
space following a reboot. If you do this on say a news log file you are
talking *serious* amounts of disk space.

Nigel.

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