[OT] Hardlinks and directories

[Suvayu Ali]

On Friday 12 February 2010 04:07 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 15:40 -0800, Suvayu Ali wrote:
>> On Friday 12 February 2010 09:19 AM, Mikkel wrote:
>>> On 02/12/2010 09:29 AM, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
>>>>
>>>> lsof would allow you to find the processes that have the files open. And then
>>>> you could kill those processes to release the space. It looks like you should
>>>> be able to get size infomation of these files from lsof as well. So one
>>>> could script looking for processes that have large files open.
>>>
>>> You might want to try using the +L1 and the -s options. It will
>>> display the sizes of unlinked (deleted) files.
>>>
>>> lsof +L1 -s
>>
>> I am not entirely clear about this part, how does one end up with an
>> un-named open file. To simulate the situation I tried to open a text
>> file with an editor and then removed it with rm. But it doesn't show up
>> in `lsof +L1' as I was expecting it to. Am I understanding this the
>> wrong way?
>
> Editors can do funny things with backup files in the interests of
> preserving your work. An easier test would be:
>
> cat>  foo&
> rm foo
> lsof +L1 -s
>
> When I do this the "cat" process shows up (and foo is marked as
> deleted). You can then reconnect to "cat" (using fg) and write stuff
> into the "non-existent" file.

Yes! worked wonderfully. Also when I tried `cat foo' while it was 
backgrounded, cat complained "No such file or directory". Which is 
exactly what we would expect. :)

>
> poc
>

Thank you everyone for all the responses. Can't help but admire with awe 
at the collective knowledge/wisdom of the list. ;)
-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.