ARDEA@HGRRUG5.BITNET.UUCP (01/30/87)
I would like to know if anybody out there has run into the following problem
and perhaps has an easy solution to it.
I was low on disk space and decided to clean up my MAIL-messages. My MAIL.MAI
file contained nearly 500 blocks, so there was something to be gained there.
After I had cleaned up everything I checked my disk quotum, assuming it to
be pretty high. However I still missed nearly 500 blocks. After looking
around abit I found out that my MAIL.MAI file still had its original
length (nearly 500 blocks).
After consulting our system manager I learned that MAIl can only extend
MAIL.MAI, but it can't shorten it after deleting messages. In my case it
was no problem, as I only had to delete MAIL.MAI, but what do you have to
do if you want to keep some messages (so you can't just delete MAIL.MAI).
Please reply to:
ARDEA@HGRRUG5.BITNET
Thanks in advance,
R.F. Janz
User consultant,
Computer Centre of the State University Groningen
The Netherlandsiglesias%unxa.uci.edu@ICS.UCI.EDU.UUCP (01/31/87)
Try the COMPRESS command in mail - that makes a new copy of MAIL.MAI, effectively removing all the deleted bytes in the file. You'll need enough disk space for two copies of the file while doing this. Compare the sizes of MAIL.MAI and MAIL.OLD after it's done - if MAIL.MAI is smaller, then you'll have recovered all the space you can from your mail file. You can delete MAIL.OLD to get back the disk space when you're done. Type HELP COMPRESS while you're running mail for more information. Mike Iglesias University of California, Irvine BITNET: MIGLESIAS@UCIVMSA ARPA: iglesias@ics.uci.edu
art@MITRE.ARPA.UUCP (02/02/87)
Mail uses an ISAM mail file. Your system manager is wrong when he says that
it can not be shortened. MAIL has the compress command to shorten the
file. Being an ISAM file the only way to shorten the file is to copy
it to another ISAM file and rename the files. Thus if you had issued
the COMPRESS command under mail, it would have copied the contents of
the MAIL.MAI file to a new MAIL.MAI file. The old file would be
renamed MAIL.OLD. This file would need to be deleted by you after the
COMPRESS was completed.
PURGE/RECLAIM will release the deleted space so that RMS can reuse the
space for new incoming messages. This will allow the mail system to
not always grow a larger and larger file of discarded messages. An
automatic purge/reclaim is performed when the amount of deleted space
in a mail file exceeds 32,767 bytes.
Both COMPRESS and PURGE/RECLAIM will lock the MAIL.MAI file and result
in error messages to users who might be attempting to send mail to you
while the operation takes place.
*
*---Art
*
*Arthur T. McClinton Jr. ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA
*Mitre Corporation MS-Z305 Phone: 703-883-6356
*1820 Dolley Madison Blvd Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM
*McLean, Va. 22102 DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON
*
=-=- This note is in response to yours which follows -=-=
I would like to know if anybody out there has run into the following problem
and perhaps has an easy solution to it.
I was low on disk space and decided to clean up my MAIL-messages. My MAIL.MAI
file contained nearly 500 blocks, so there was something to be gained there.
After I had cleaned up everything I checked my disk quotum, assuming it to
be pretty high. However I still missed nearly 500 blocks. After looking
around abit I found out that my MAIL.MAI file still had its original
length (nearly 500 blocks).
After consulting our system manager I learned that MAIl can only extend
MAIL.MAI, but it can't shorten it after deleting messages. In my case it
was no problem, as I only had to delete MAIL.MAI, but what do you have to
do if you want to keep some messages (so you can't just delete MAIL.MAI).
Please reply to:
ARDEA@HGRRUG5.BITNET
Thanks in advance,
R.F. Janz
User consultant,
Computer Centre of the State University Groningen
The NetherlandsSTRASSER@seismo.CSS.GOV@RSBS0.anu.OZ.AU (02/05/87)
I think you'll find that SET FILE/TRUNCATE MAIL.MAI will do the trick. To see the difference, type DIR/SIZE=ALL MAIL.MAI before and after doing this. Mike Strasser Research School of Biological Sciences Australian National University G.P.O. Box 475 Canberra City A.C.T. 2601 Australia CSNET : strasser@rsbs0.anu.oz ARPANET : strasser%rsbs0.anu.oz@seismo.CSS.GOV
carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU.UUCP (02/06/87)
Set File/Truncate doesn't work for INDEXED files.