on Wed, Jan 03, 2001 at 09:36:38PM -0500, D-Man (dsh8290@rit.edu) wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 03, 2001 at 06:05:13PM -0800, kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> > $ fuser -v bigfile # show process(es) using bigfile
> > $ fuser -vk bigfile # kill process(es) using bigfile
> > $ fuser -v bigfile # verify the kill worked
> > $ cat /dev/null > bigfile # "empty" the file
> > $ rm bigfile
> >
> > In general, you want to *empty* a file (cat /dev/null > file) before you
> > delete it, and you don't want to delete an open file.
> >
>
> Why would you cat /dev/null into the file before removing it?
- In the event something filled (or was still filling) the file.
- In the event I didn't get the kills right. I've now got an
empty(er) disk to try to set things right in, and don't have a
large, but unreachable, quantity of data to deal with.
- In the event the file was larger than 2 GB (under some circumstances
this leads to problems, IIRC).
- To speed up the rm -- don't as me why, but I've observed this in the
past.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
Evangelist, Zelerate, Inc. http://www.zelerate.org
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal
http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
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