[ale] bizarre error

Tue Apr 16 08:55:03 EDT 2002

Cade Thacker writes:
 > If I remember correctly this also happend to the gentleman from ZapMedia.
 > I don't remember what the exact outcome was, but I think he ended
 > rebooting to fix it too.
 > 
 > Micahael -- what ended up being the problem you had a few months ago.

Ah yes, that was a strange one.  It does sound similar to John's
problem, but less benign since his is cured by a reboot.

There turned out to be a bug in reiserfs.  In some bizarre
circumstances you could have deleted a file, but a zombie process
still had it open, or something.  At any rate, the space would not get
freed, not even on a reboot.  So you could have only half a disk used,
but have no free space.  du and df would return different answers.
The only solution once this happened is to use some reiserfs utilities
to check each used inode and see if it was associated to a file that
really existed.  That took about 6 hours on a 30 gig hd.

--Michael

 > 
 > 
 > --cade
 > 
 > On Linux vs Windows
 > ==================
 > Remember, amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic!
 > ==================
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > On Mon, 15 Apr 2002, John Wells wrote:
 > 
 > > Just for the heck of it, I rebooted, e2fsck ran, and I'm back in business.
 > > Can't really explain what happened.  The only thing unusual that I did was
 > > install wxWindows from rpm (I usually compile from source).
 > >
 > > At least it's fixed...
 > >
 > > Thanks,
 > > John
 > >
 > > ---------  Original message --------
 > > From: John Wells <jb at sourceillustrated.com>
 > > To: Chris Fowler <cfowler at outpostsentinel.com>, John Wells
 > > <jb at sourceillustrated.com>, Geoffrey <esoteric at 3times25.net>
 > > CC: ale at ale.org
 > > Subject: RE: [ale] bizarre error
 > > Date: 04-16-02 00:47
 > >
 > > > Oh well...guess it's a good opportunity to learn debugfs ;).  Thanks for
 > > the
 > > effort anyway!
 > >
 > > John
 > >
 > > ---------  Original message --------
 > > From: Chris Fowler &lt;cfowler at outpostsentinel.com&gt;
 > > To: John Wells &lt;jb at sourceillustrated.com&gt;, Geoffrey
 > > &lt;esoteric at 3times25.net&gt;
 > > CC: ale at ale.org
 > > Subject: RE: [ale] bizarre error
 > > Date: 04-16-02 00:43
 > >
 > > &gt; Your going to have to try debugfs.
 > >
 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: John Wells [mailto:jb at sourceillustrated.com]
 > > Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 4:40 PM
 > > To: Chris Fowler; Geoffrey
 > > Cc: ale at ale.org
 > > Subject: RE: [ale] bizarre error
 > >
 > >
 > > Ok.  Reran cvs to get the error again and fill the disk back up.  Here's the
 > > output:
 > >
 > > [/home/jb/c]-)./statfs /
 > > FS: /
 > > Optimal Block Size: 4096
 > > Total Blocks in FS: 1978557
 > > Free Blocks: 250760
 > > Used Blocks: 1727797
 > > Blocks Avail. to non-root: 150254
 > > Total INODES: 1005888
 > > Free INODES: 752323
 > > Used INODES: 253565
 > >
 > > ---------  Original message --------
 > > From: Chris Fowler &amp;lt;cfowler at outpostsentinel.com&amp;gt;
 > > To: Geoffrey &amp;lt;esoteric at 3times25.net&amp;gt;
 > > CC: ale at ale.org
 > > Subject: RE: [ale] bizarre error
 > > Date: 04-16-02 00:24
 > >
 > > &amp;gt; comiple this with
 > >
 > > gcc -o statfs statfs.c
 > >
 > > Run it and display output.
 > >
 > > --- Cut Here ----
 > > #include &amp;amp;lt;stdio.h&amp;amp;gt;
 > > #include &amp;amp;lt;unistd.h&amp;amp;gt;
 > > #include &amp;amp;lt;sys/vfs.h&amp;amp;gt;
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > > int
 > > main(int argc, char *argv[])
 > > {
 > > struct statfs buf;
 > >
 > > if(argc !=2)
 > > {
 > > fprintf(stderr,&amp;amp;quot;statfs &amp;amp;lt;dir fs is mounted
 > > on&amp;amp;gt;n&amp;amp;quot;);
 > > exit(1);
 > > }
 > >
 > > if(statfs(argv[1], &amp;amp;amp;buf) == -1)
 > > {
 > > perror(&amp;amp;quot;open fs&amp;amp;quot;);
 > > exit(1);
 > > }
 > >
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;FS: %sn&amp;amp;quot;, argv[1]);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Optimal Block Size:        %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_bsize);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Total Blocks in FS:        %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_blocks);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Free Blocks:               %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_bfree);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Used Blocks:               %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_blocks -
 > > buf.f_bfree);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Blocks Avail. to non-root: %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_bavail);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Total INODES:              %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_files);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Free INODES:               %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_ffree);
 > > printf(&amp;amp;quot;Used INODES:               %ldn&amp;amp;quot;,
 > > buf.f_files -
 > > buf.f_ffree);
 > >
 > > return 0;
 > > }
 > >
 > > --- Cut Here ---
 > >
 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: Geoffrey [mailto:esoteric at 3times25.net]
 > > Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 8:14 PM
 > > To: Chris Fowler
 > > Subject: Re: [ale] bizarre error
 > >
 > >
 > > Chris Fowler wrote:
 > > &amp;amp;gt; I should have known taht one.  Maybe I've been programming too
 > > long.
 > >
 > > Nah, some of those items slip by.  Afterall, your brain only holds so
 > > much. :)  I hope there's not a 'programming too long' window cause I'd
 > > sure would have fallen out of it by now. :)
 > >
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt; -----Original Message-----
 > > &amp;amp;gt; From: Geoffrey [mailto:esoteric at 3times25.net]
 > > &amp;amp;gt; Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 8:01 PM
 > > &amp;amp;gt; To: John Wells
 > > &amp;amp;gt; Cc: Chris Fowler; ale at ale.org
 > > &amp;amp;gt; Subject: Re: [ale] bizarre error
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;---------  Original message --------
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;From: Chris Fowler
 > > &amp;amp;lt;cfowler at outpostsentinel.com&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;To: Geoffrey
 > > &amp;amp;lt;esoteric at 3times25.net&amp;amp;gt;, John
 > > Wells
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;jb at sourceillustrated.com&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;CC: ale at ale.org
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;Subject: RE: [ale] bizarre error
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;Date: 04-15-02 23:46
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;I never thought about that one.  Is
 > > there a way to
 > > check?
 > > &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt; df -i
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt; --
 > > &amp;amp;gt; Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt; I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
 > > &amp;amp;gt; to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > > &amp;amp;gt;
 > >
 > >
 > > --
 > > Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net
 > >
 > > I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
 > > to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > > ---
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 > > sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
 > >
 > >
 > > ---
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 > >
 > >
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 > >
 > >
 > 
 > 
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