Linux-Noob Forums

Hi guys,

 

Whenever I try and update the server using yum, I get an error something like:

 







 

Now I fixed this before by removing old kernel's, but there are only 2 at the moment (the one in use and a new one - waiting for a good time to reboot!)

 

Disk usage:

 







 

Contents of /

 







 

Is there a way I can give '/' more space safely? I'm not too sure I want to go delete stuff from there in case it has disastrous consequences...

 

Cheers

 

Neil

ouch - no reason why your root filesystem should fill up like that!

 

use the "du" command to see how big specific directories are, eg:







or:







when in a directory.

 

You can ignore the /home and /var dirs - they're mounted on separate filesystems.

 

As a matter of interest.. you don't (graphical) login as root and run everything as that user, do you?

Quote:ouch - no reason why your root filesystem should fill up like that!

 

use the "du" command to see how big specific directories are, eg:

Code:

du -sh /

<div>


or:

Code:

du -sh *

when in a directory.

 

You can ignore the /home and /var dirs - they're mounted on separate filesystems.

 

As a matter of interest.. you don't (graphical) login as root and run everything as that user, do you?



</div>

 

It's a server, so no graphical logins at all.

 

If it was /var I'd be laughing as I could just empty some apache log files, restart the daemon and bob's your uncle... Is there an easy way of getting yum to use a drive that does have free space on it? The / path is confusing me, as when I list the files on it, I see etc, var etc, but they're on their own filesystem.

 

Interestingly, I've moved the yum cache dir to



which has plenty of space, and I still get errors!

 

Quote:It's a server, so no graphical logins at all.

 

If it was /var I'd be laughing as I could just empty some apache log files, restart the daemon and bob's your uncle... Is there an easy way of getting yum to use a drive that does have free space on it?

Getting yum to use a different drive/partition is a matter of mounting something over /var/cache/yum, but as your /var is on another filesystem then that isn't the issue. Try "yum clean cache" or "yum clean all" to flush out the contents.

 

Remember that yum simply installs files - it may be adding packages to /usr/bin - so there isn't a way of "getting yum to use a drive with free space", unless you're talking about the cache, which you addressed lower down.

 

Quote:The / path is confusing me, as when I list the files on it, I see etc, var etc, but they're on their own filesystem.

"mount" will show you where mount points are for separate filesystems. It helps to think of "/" as one cooridoor with rooms leading off to other areas of the floor, except that /var leads to stairs up to another floor and /home = stairs leading down. "df" will report the sizes of those floors as well as the "/" floor, but it means content dropped into those filesytstems doesn't affect your current (root) floor.

 

What did the "du" command show?

 

Quote:Interestingly, I've moved the yum cache dir to

Code:

/home/yum/cache

<div>
which has plenty of space, and I still get errors!

</div>

That's a bit like saying you've expanded the size of your warehouse, but your home is still too small to accept delivery of new goods. The cache area is just a holding area for yum to pull down packages before installing; the error moans about the size final destination, not about the cache area (which was in /var anyway, and had space to cope prior to the move).

Thank you for the very clear and concise reply, much appreciated!

 

I think I was getting hung-up on the error, assuming it was yum's cache at fault, not thinking of the possibility it could be a problem with the final install.

 

I do have a slight problem (which is related to my confusion about the actual '/' path) - if I:

 







 

then it looks like the root isn't a seperate filesystem, but simply the actual root where-from all other paths are under...

 

For example, under a windows box you'd have C: and maybe D:, but C: root would be the root dir, then you'd have /windows under it etc - I'm probably way off here but hopefully that explains my confusion somewhat.

 

So if I run a command like:

 







 

I get reams and reams of output, as the command scans through everything, even my remote mounted backup drives!

 

I can post the output here but I'm not sure how useful it would be.

 

Not sure if it tells you anything but here's the diskfree stats:

 







 

 

Ok, I think I might have found some old files which were just sat wasting space, I've deleted them and ended up with some disk space, and yum finished updating successfully!

 







 

Thanks for your help, pointers, and for bearing with me!

Quote:For example, under a windows box you'd have C: and maybe D:, but C: root would be the root dir, then you'd have /windows under it etc - I'm probably way off here but hopefully that explains my confusion somewhat.

It's more like "/" = "My Computer" and /var = D: drive, /home = E: drive.

 

Windows has the ability now to mount a drive under a directory, so instead of D: you could call it C:\Documents. It looks like it's part of the C: drive (first disk) but it's a separate filesystem - filling up C:\Documents won't fill up C:\windows or C:|

 

Quote:So if I run a command like:

 

Code:

du -sh /

<div>


 

I get reams and reams of output, as the command scans through everything

</div>

Try:







That should give you a summary of each dir (or mount point). From there, you can start to drop down into other directories and re-run the command, narrowing down where large files happen to lie.