Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!noao!mcdsun!sunburn!gtx!edge!hanko
From: hanko@edge.UUCP (Jim Hanko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Wierd 3b inode problem with news.
Message-ID: <986@edge.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Nov-87 15:41:53 EST
Article-I.D.: edge.986
Posted: Fri Nov 13 15:41:53 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Nov-87 18:01:33 EST
References: <283@paisano.UUCP> <156@fesk.UUCP> <3626@islenet.UUCP>
Reply-To: hanko@edge.UUCP (Jim Hanko)
Organization: Edge Computer Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ
Lines: 36
Keywords: SysV bugs
Summary: Generic System V bug
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.att:1760 comp.unix.wizards:5468

In article <3626@islenet.UUCP> richard@islenet.UUCP (Richard Foulk) writes:
>> 
>> I have seen the same thing on an ICM3216 running SysV.2.2.
>> The inode count of the spool file system (where news reside)
>> will drop from 12000 to 0 within minutes (perhaps seconds) while
>> unpacking a compressed news batch (rnews -U). Recourse is to go
>> to single user mode and do an fsck on the file system. This will
>> restore all (12000) lost inodes.  This scenario happens about
>> once per month and I have not noticed a correlation with the
>> news volume.
>
>I've encountered this problem on a couple of Dual Systems orphaned
>machines.  I always figured it was Unisofts or Duals fault.
>

I ran into the same probem on our news file system and tracked it down
to a generic System V bug in the ialloc() module.  The problem occurs
because ialloc() scans from the last inode allocated to the end of the
inode table looking for free inodes.  If none are found (e.g. if the
last allocated inode was near the end of the table and all subsequent
ones are in use), then "out of inodes" is reported.  It DOES NOT go
back to search for free inodes from the beginning.  Therefore, this
error can occur even when many free inodes are available. 

The fix involves checking whether the search began at inode 0 when no free
inodes were found.  If it didn't, then re-start the search at 0. If it
did, THEN print "out of inodes" and exit. 

This problem rarely shows up on "normal" file systems, but the high level
of activity in net file systems seems to aggrivate it. 

---
Jim Hanko		...{mot|ism780|oliveb}!edge!hanko
Edge Computer,
Scottsdale AZ
--