Lets say that you have /var on a separate partition, i.e. you have a
/var entry in /etc/fstab. To make this work, you must have an existing
/var directory in the root "/" partition to mount the physical partion
on to. Normally the /var directory in the / partition is empty.
If a file exists on the / partition in the /var directory, you will
not see it if the physical var partition has been mounted on top of
the /var directory. But you will see it after you have unmounted
the /var partition.
For example:
# ls -a /var
.
..
cache
local
log
... and more
# umount /var
# ls -a /var
.
..
big_honkin_10gb_hidden_file
# rm /var/big_honkin_10gb_hidden_file
# mount /var
Problem fixed.
So how does big_honkin_10gb_hidden_file get created? Usually because
something went wrong with the mount process at one time. /var was
not mounted. Some programs (or unaware sysadms) created some files
in /var. But because the physical /var partition was not mounted,
the files were actually being created on the / partition instead.
Then later the /var mounting problem was fixed, and those files
"disappeared".
Mark Weaver wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> I'm almost getting what you're saying, but I'm a little confused as to
> what you mean when you say that after unmounting the filesystem and do an
> "ls" if it is not empty then I've found the missing space.
>
> Mark
>
> On Thu, 17 May 2001, Tom Schutter wrote:
>
> > This really sounds like a suggestion I saw earlier, in that you are
> > hiding the file with a mount.
> >
> > Look at /etc/fstab.
> > Drop to runlevel 1.
> > Start unmounting filesystems. Do a "ls" on the mount point after
> > you have unmounted the filesystem. If it is not empty, you have
> > found your missing space.
> >
> > Mark Weaver wrote:
> > >
> > > Dean, Nick, Tom, and all,
> > >
> > > This is day three with this mystery still loose upon this poor machine and
> > > I have yet to be able to find anything.
> > >
> > > This morning I "think" I managed to narrow things down a bit and taking
> > > the suggestions given from the list used the searches provided. It would
> > > appear from the readings I'm getting back from "du" and "df" that the file
> > > I'm looking for is roughly 187MB in size however I'm unable to find this
> > > file. I've attached a txt file to this message which contains the results
> > > of what these two programs report the usage as.
> > >
> > > As you all suggested I dropped down to runlevel 1 and ran the suggested
> > > diagnostics. Everything came back with the filesystem being in perfect
> > > health. According to reiserfsck there doesn't appear to be anything wrong
> > > with the system.
> > >
> > > any ideas?
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Name: usage.txt
> > > usage.txt Type: Plain Text (TEXT/PLAIN)
> > > Encoding: BASE64
> >
> > --
> > Tom Schutter (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
> > Platte River Associates, Inc. (http://www.platte.com)
> >
--
Tom Schutter (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Platte River Associates, Inc. (http://www.platte.com)
