topic Re: /var/root is full in Operating System - HP-UX

/var/root is full

Galen Benson — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:24:16 GMT

Good Afternoon,

I'm getting a message saying that /var/root is full on our hpux 11i system & can't figure out how to find out what's filling it. When the system reboots, the console is scrolling a message saying 'mknod: file exists'. I think that this message is what's filling or appending a system or log file somewhere but don't know how to stop it or clear the impacted file.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: /var/root is full

IT Operations Unix Admi — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:15:07 GMT

$su -
#cd /var/root
#du -ks *

#cd to the directory with the most kb's in it.
#du -ks *

repeat those 2 steps untill you have found the file filling your file system.

An alternative

# cd /tmp
# ls -aRl /var/root > var-root.txt
# sort -k 5 -n var-root.txt |tail
# more var-root.txt

search for the file name that show up with the tail command.

Re: /var/root is full

James R. Ferguson — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:50:02 GMT

Hi Galen:

I'd start by 'grep'ing for '/var/root' in the startup script directory:

# grep /var/root /sbin/init.d/*

...to see if you can find any scripts that reference this.

'mknod' is used to create special device files and pipe (FIFOs). You could 'grep' for that in the startup files, too.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: /var/root is full

Bill Hassell — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:23:37 GMT

Look carefully at the file: /etc/rc.log to see where the mknod message is appearing. There are a few scripts in /sbin/init.d that have mknod in them, but these scripts would not loop around. Look for a custom script in that directory by sorting most recent mods first:

ll -t /sbin/init.d

Re: /var/root is full

MarkSyder — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:07:35 GMT

If you cd /var/root and run

ll -tr

the most recently amended files/directories will appear at the bottom of the screen. If it's only recently filled, these are probably the ones causing the problem.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

Re: /var/root is full

Galen Benson — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:49:29 GMT

Thanks for all the input. After I posted this message yesterday, I actually found another thread which pointed me towards the fact that I was running in init 3 after booting to maintenance mode. I think that was the problem. I'll be happy to add your information though to my slowly growing base of knowledge regarding hpux.

Re: /var/root is full

Galen Benson — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:51:52 GMT

closed