compressing all the small files

[gany59]

Hi techiees,

/tmp getting full due to many small files, so is there any way to compress all the files into one archive and then again compress by gzip

Could any body help me out on this...
Thanks in advance

[smatador · Accepted solution]

Hi,
I don't have a system to test but I think
You could try something start by
find /tmp -size < size of small files >| tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar
or
find /tmp -size < size of small files >| xargs tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar | gzip -c > backup.tar.gz
HTH

[Michael Steele_2]

Hi

Yep, that's how I'd do it.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

The '/tmp' filesystem is intended for use by the operating system. Generally, the files placed within are small lock files and socket files. '/var/tmp' is the proper repository for application temporary files.

How many is "many"? How "small" is small? How old are the files and what are they?

You can configure your server to remove the contents of the '/tmp' directory at startup. It sounds like you need to do some cleanup.

Regards!

...JRF...

[gany59]

Many files in the size 1200128 are generated before a month and many zero size files are generated before a week..

i just really confused how to compress all these files into one archive

[gany59]

If i tried the below commands , it will show the error like
find /tmp -size 1024 | tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar
Attempt to create archive of no files. Nothing dumped.

please let me know on this

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

I think you need to change the find command :

find /tmp -type f -size -1024c |

(for file smaller than 1024 char)

Regards
Jean-Luc

[gany59]

Hi
while i am trying this command also ,, it shows the error

find /tmp -type f -size -1024c | tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar
Attempt to create archive of no files. Nothing dumped.

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

try
find /tmp -type f -size -1024c | xargs tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar

Regards
Jean-Luc

[Dennis Handly]

As JRF mentioned, you should just remove these files, possibly based on age.

>Attempt to create archive of no files. Nothing dumped.

As I say below, you can't use HP-UX's tar.

>smatador: find /tmp -size | tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar

You are not going to be able to use tar with find. The correct tools are pax(1), cpio(1) or GNU tar.
find /tmp -size -10000 | pax -w | gzip > backup.tar.gz

>Jean-Luc: find /tmp -type f -size -1024c | xargs tar cvf backup_smallfile.tar

Again, you need to give up on tar.

[Dennis Handly]

Another thread where someone wanted to use tar with find:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1362972