brandon@tdi2.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (12/12/86)
Quoted from <165@uwslh.UUCP> ["Re: truncating root directory of a file system"], by dem@uwslh.UUCP (David E. Miran)... +--------------- | In article <511@cdx39.UUCP>, jc@cdx39.UUCP (John Chambers) writes: | > Hey, here's a good puzzle for a Unix file-system wizard. | > You know how some directories (like /usr/spool/uucp) can | > get really huge... The usual solution is to rebuild | > the directory - you rename it, create a new one in its | > place, and moving the contents from the old one to the new. | > | > Well, there's a case where this doesn't work too well. | > This is the root directory of a file system. | There is a very straightforeward solution to this problem, which | also cleans up other problems related to poor allocation of parts | of the disk unit. | 1. Do a full save of the unit to tape. | 2. Unmount the unit. | 3. Recreate a file system on the unit using newfs or mkfs. | 4. Do a full restore of the unit from tape. | 5. Do a full save again since all the creation dates change. | This is also a good time to check your average file size and perhaps | recreate the unit with a larger number of bytes per inode. +--------------- Under sys5 (no dump/restore), the best way is to find a spare disk partition and dcopy the root partition. This will also reorganize the directories for fastest pathname searching (e.g. namei) and put the most commonly accessed files in optimum places. # dcopy /dev/rdsk/0s1 /dev/dsk/1s6 # dd if=/dev/rdsk/1s6 of=/dev/rdsk/0s1 bs=20b # : note that you ought to boot off a different root to do the dd # : unfortunately, Plexus is difficult to reboot for a different root! You should have specified Sys3/Sys5/BSD4.x. ++Brandon -- ``for is he not of the Children of Luthien? Never shall that line fail, though the years may lengthen beyond count.'' --J. R. R. Tolkien Brandon S. Allbery UUCP: cbatt!cwruecmp!ncoast!tdi2!brandon Tridelta Industries, Inc. CSNET: ncoast!allbery@Case 7350 Corporate Blvd. INTERNET: ncoast!allbery%Case.CSNET@relay.CS.NET Mentor, Ohio 44060 PHONE: +1 216 255 1080 (home) +1 216 974 9210