Rogue process??

[Clay Weber]

On Friday, May 17, 2013 12:14:10 AM Paul Kaplan wrote:
> Used df -h to report the results below.
> 
> 
> I cleared /tmp manually, but it fills back up (to 100M) on next login.
> /var/log is relatively small.
> 
> 
> I did notice that on another machine /proc/kcore is only about 1Gb whereas
> on the problem machine is nearly 2Tb.
> 
> 
> It may be faster to just reinstall.
> P
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Clay Weber" <clay at claydoh.com>
> To: "Kubuntu user technical support" <kubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 7:51:16 PM
> Subject: Re: Rogue process??
> 
> On Thursday, May 16, 2013 08:41:33 PM Paul Kaplan wrote:
> > I did apt-get update this morning on a Raring system and found kernel
> > updates for 3.8.0-21. After issuing apt-get upgrade, I got a bunch of
> > errors, all of which end with "No space left on device".
> > 
> > 
> > I installed the system on an 11Gb partition (with /home on a separate
> > partition) and it initially took up about 5.5Gb. When I investigated the
> > above error, / was 100% full with no available space. Further
> > investigation
> > showed that only all the directories added up to ~5.5Gb of files with the
> > exception of /proc which is shown as 1.8Tb. Most of the sub-directies are
> > 0
> > size despite having files and subdirectories. Most important is the kcore
> > file, listed as 1.8Tb.
> > 
> > 
> > I've been using linux systems for many years and have never seen something
> > like this and it's choking my primary machine.
> > 
> > 
> > Help!!!
> > 
> > 
> > Paul
> 
> What is the out put of the command "df -h"?. or rather what method are you
> using to determine drive space?
> 
> Check your /tmp and perhaps /var/log - some logs can grow to be quite large
> sometimes if there are crashes, even unseen ones. The program filelight can
> help with a visual representation of what's using space on your drive.
> 
> /proc is a virtual filesystem, so it is not really taking up any space.
> 
> 
> 
> Clay Weber
> http://kubuntuforums.net
> http://claydoh.com

As I said, /proc is *virtual*, not using *any actual disk space*. My kcore is 
128 *TB*, which is obviously not happening on my aging laptop :D.

Read up on the /proc system, and do look for actual physical places for space 
to be used up. You said that you investigated further and that the total added 
space used is 5.5gb, so one number must be wrong. I'd lean toward the df 
output being the correct one, and that discovering where it is being used with  
filelight or a similar tool will likely be much faster than a reinstall. 
-- 
Clay Weber (claydoh)
http://kubuntuforums.net
http://claydoh.com