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From: barnett@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP (Bruce G Barnett)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: unlinking open files
Message-ID: <1839@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Jun-87 11:54:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: vdsvax.1839
Posted: Fri Jun 19 11:54:04 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 22-Jun-87 02:29:49 EDT
References: <6695@auspyr.UUCP>
Reply-To: barnett@ge-crd.arpa (Bruce G Barnett)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 39

In article <6695@auspyr.UUCP> mick@auspyr.UUCP (Mick Andrew) writes:
>in article <7074@mimsy.UUCP>, chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) says:
>>  * We use the despicable trick of unlinking an open temporary file.
>>  * The alternatives are too painful.  
>
>I've often wondered about this.

>for real-world honest-to-god live applications, this seems like the
>best solution to avoid leaving temp file clutter lying around
>on poorly understood and administered Unix boxes.
>
>Comments anyone?
>
>Mick

One Question
	Would deleting open files cause problems on an
	NFS-based file system? 

One Comment
	I had a very unpleasant morning trying to re-organize
	a disk because it kept running out of room. I kept making
	more room, and the disk kept filling up. (we usually have a
	few users who create 20 Megabytes of new data each day)

	Finally I realized that the disk was filling up, but the
	du command wasn't showing it! Who was filling up the disk?

	Yes, someone had a process writing to a file. He deleted the
	file without killing the process, and forgot it was running.

	


-- 
Bruce G. Barnett  (barnett@ge-crd.ARPA) (barnett@steinmetz.UUCP)
-- 
"The difference between a Buddha and an ordinary man is that one knows
the difference and the other does not."