[ale] slocate updatedb locked files?

[Jeff Lightner]

The filesystems as noted were ext3 (local mounts - they are not even
shared out to other systems).  There were 2 different filesystems in the
2 separate events.   No fsck was attempted because running an fsck on a
mounted filesystem is not a good idea.   These were up and running
Production servers.  Reboot solves the issue (possibly because it does
an fsck due to being unable to umount on the shutdown).   My question is
more about what causes the issue than how to resolve it.

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim
To: ale at ale.org
Popovitch
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 4:25 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] slocate updatedb locked files?

On Wed, 2007-01-10 at 09:41 -0500, Jeff Lightner wrote:
> Some time back (mid-October) we noticed a dramatic increase in CPU
> load during a weekend.   On researching this we were able to trace it
> back to a file on an ext3 filesystem that would cause any process that
> attempted to access it to hang (thereby adding to the runq).  Since
> the slocate cron job ran every day as did an incremental or full
> backup they too would get hung and add to the runq.  This was the
> first time such an issue had been noted in over a year of running this
> RH AS 3 system.   The issue was solved by rebooting the server.   The
> file in question was easily accessible after the reboot.

Was the file local or on a mounted share?  Have you tried fsck'ing the
partition that the file resides on?

-Jim P.