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From: mitch@rock.sgi.com (Thomas P. Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: /debug size
Summary: Users need do nothing with it.
Message-ID: <215@odin.SGI.COM>
Date: 18 Jul 89 00:31:32 GMT
References: <8907161727.AA17013@anaconda.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@odin.SGI.COM
Organization: Silicon Graphics Computer Systems,  Mountain View CA.
Lines: 51

In article <8907161727.AA17013@anaconda.Stanford.EDU> bul@ANACONDA.STANFORD.EDU (Byung-Uk Lee) writes:
>
>One problem with the /debug size is that it builds up. My guess is that there
>are some processes that claims swap spaces even after the process is killed.
>The only way to refresh the /debug directory seems to be rebooting the machine


Please, the size of /debug is not real.  /debug is a data
structure which is used by the debugging tools to locate
running processes.  Users need do nothing with it.  Except 
perhaps omit it in backups.

The size is not real.  Remember one of the primary goals of
Unix/Irix(1) is to reuse code.  When 'dbx' was enhanced to
permit attaching running processes the model of a filesystem
was apparently selected because there was a lot of code
which was easy to reuse.  As a side effect things like 'df'
could return interesting things.  The nature of
'interesting' is a result of the whims of the kernel
programer.  In other words things may change.

What is documented is the -p flag to dbx.  Let us review;
/debug was designed as a hook for dbx.
                                     ^ *PERIOD*

It happens to look like a filesystem.  But that makes things
like  open/close/lseek etc. work in ordinary ways.  Remember
the part about reusing code. 

--------
(1) Both Trademarks.
    UNIX is AT&T's
    Irix is Silicon Graphics'
-- 
 
Thomas P. Mitchell (ARPA:mitch@csd.sgi.com, UUCP:  {decwrl,ucbvax}!sgi!mitch )
Rainbows -- The best (well second best) reason for windows.











 
Thomas P. Mitchell (ARPA:mitch@csd.sgi.com, UUCP:  {decwrl,ucbvax}!sgi!mitch )
Rainbows -- The best (well second best) reason for windows.