Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zazen!uwvax!spool.cs.wisc.edu!mjs From: mjs@behemoth.genetics.wisc.edu (Mike Schmelzer) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: sorting a BIG file Message-ID: Date: 27 Apr 91 21:42:21 GMT Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu (The News) Distribution: comp Organization: UW Genetix Lines: 27 I'm trying to sort a large file (actually a stream) that consists of 6 letters per line. I'm running a Sparcstation 1+ SunOS 4.1 w/ 24M real memory and ~75M swap space. When I try to pipe this stream into sort(1), it eventually dies with a '/: write failed, file system is full' Thinking "aha! sort needs more scratch space!", I linked /tmp to a partition with 48Meg free and ran sort again. Now here's the tricky part: It still bombs with a write error to '/'. Why?!? Does sort use something other than /tmp for scratch space? If /tmp is soft-linked somewhere else, and that runs out of room, does it get reported as a failure to write to '/' rather than '/mnt/bigpartition' ? Most importantly: How can I sort BIG files like this? I'm ready to sacrifice speed to accomplish this. (I'm ready to sacrifice *anything* to accomplish this, but that's another story.) Please mail your reply, and I will post a summary. Thanks! -- ==== Mike Schmelzer, UW Genetix, mjs@genetics.wisc.edu, (608)263-7459. === ========= Schmelzer's Law: You can have anything you don't want. ========= ================ "How can hatred uplift a race?" - 3rd Bass ==============