NIS password file zeroed out when /var filled

[Unix Team]

Has anyone had the experience of /var/yp/nis/passwd being changed to 0 bytes when the /var filesystem filled? I'm trying to figure out if there is a correlation between the two events that happened about 45 minustes apart.

A user sent a 1Gb print job through that filled the spooler on /var/spool/lp/request. While /var was filled, the passwd file became 0 bytes. Don't know if perhaps a user tried to change his password while the fs was full, or if it was a direct result of /var filling. Of course, the syslog file stopped recording when /var filled....

--Craig

[Patrick Wallek]

Yes, there is a chance that the 2 problems are related.

I know it is entirely possible to have problems with /etc/passwd if you happen to fill the / filesystem. It stands to reason that the NIS passwd file could experience the same issues.

[Kent Ostby]

Yeah .. could happen .. if there was no room in /var and we tried to write out a file, it would be zero length.

I haven't seen it with that file in particular but I have with others.

[Patrick Wallek]

By the way, this sounds like a good reason to do 1 of 2 things:

1) Make the /var/yp directory structure its own filesystem so it is not effected should this happen again.

or

2) Make /var/spool/lp/request its own filesystem so that large print jobs won't effect the rest of /var.

I personally would prefer option 2. I would also consider making /var/adm/sw its own filesystem for the same reasons.

[Unix Team]

Makes sense, while the filesystem was full, a user tried to change his password, which would require re-writing the passwd file. Since the filesystem was full, we ended up with a zero byte file....