tpm@uunet.uu.net (Terence P. Ma) (05/06/91)
Hope the title isn't too obscure ... anyway (question I didn't find in one of my FMs, please tell me which one it's in. Also didn't find it in FAQs). I came back from 2 weeks of business trips to 2.3 MBytes worth of mail (I get several newsgroups as email because I don't have Usenet up and running yet on my system). I also noticed when I did a "df" that my "/" was up at about 85% used. As I emptied my mailbox, a "df" returned that my "/" was back to a more normal 62% used. The difference seemed to be the size of my mailbox. However, my mailbox is in /usr/spool/mail which is in "/usr", a separately mounted partition (and thus shouldn't affect "/"). I thought that maybe it was because when I was using mailtool (SunOS4.1.1; SS1+; OpenWindows) a file containing the full mailbox was being kept in "/tmp" which uses up "/" space, but there is no use of "/tmp" at the time. Could someone please explain this phenomenon to me? Thanks in advance! Tere ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** Terence P. Ma, Ph.D. Department of Anatomy If it were easy, some one University of Mississippi Medical Center would have done it already. 2500 North State Street -- anonymous Jackson, MS 39216 VOICE: 601-984-1654 UUCP: tpm-sprl!tpm@uunet.uu.net ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
mills@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Gary Mills) (05/06/91)
In <26787@adm.brl.mil> tpm-sprl!tpm@uunet.uu.net (Terence P. Ma) writes: >However, my mailbox is in /usr/spool/mail which is in "/usr", a separately >mounted partition (and thus shouldn't affect "/"). I thought that maybe it >was because when I was using mailtool (SunOS4.1.1; SS1+; OpenWindows) a file Your mailbox is actually in /var/spool/mail, which is part of ``/''. -- -Gary Mills- -Networking Group- -U of M Computer Services-
zook@sweetpea.jsc.nasa.gov (Craig A. Zook 283-4206) (05/06/91)
In article <26787@adm.brl.mil>, tpm-sprl!tpm@uunet.uu.net (Terence P. Ma) writes: |> |> However, my mailbox is in /usr/spool/mail which is in "/usr", a separately |> mounted partition (and thus shouldn't affect "/"). I thought that maybe it |> was because when I was using mailtool (SunOS4.1.1; SS1+; OpenWindows) a file |> containing the full mailbox was being kept in "/tmp" which uses up "/" |> space, but there is no use of "/tmp" at the time. |> |> Could someone please explain this phenomenon to me? |> I think you will find that /usr/spool is a symbolic link to /var/spool (i.e. spool -> ../var/spool). As a result your mail is actually in your root partition where /var is located. I had problems with my mail and print spools flooding my root partition and crashing my machine that I made a separate partition for /var (I used the d partition). The only problem with this is that you need to remember to "mount /var" whenever you boot up in single user. -- Craig Zook - zook@sweetpea.jsc.nasa.gov Systems Engineeering and Administration McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corp. - Engineering Services Division (713) 283-4206
RA04%DKAUNI2.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu ( Johannes Viegener UB Karlsruhe) (05/07/91)
> However, my mailbox is in /usr/spool/mail which is in "/usr", a separately > mounted partition (and thus shouldn't affect "/"). I thought that maybe it > was because when I was using mailtool (SunOS4.1.1; SS1+; OpenWindows) a file > containing the full mailbox was being kept in "/tmp" which uses up "/" > space, but there is no use of "/tmp" at the time. > > Could someone please explain this phenomenon to me? > On my ULTRIX-based workstation the directory /usr/spool is linked to /var/spool. On most UNIX-machines the /var directory is part of the root ( / ) filesystem (Not on my ULTRIX-stations, where the /var- filesystem is a separately mounted partition). I think SunOS will use a similar layout of spool-directories, because the /var-filesys. contains machine-specific-files, which can not be shared on a network between multiple machines. But the /usr-filesystem contains primarily files which can be shared for saving diskspace. Ciao Johannes