possible file size error

[Conor P. Cahill]

In article <2218 at netcom.UUCP>, beaulieu at netcom.UUCP (Bob Beaulieu) writes:
> How can I remove the message "Possible File Size Error I=3046"
> from appearing each time I run fsck?
> 
> What does this exactly mean?

This usually means that you have a file whose size is not compatable with 
the number of datablocks assigned to the file.  This usually occurs in
files where the software has caused a hole in the file.  This can 
be done as follows:

		fd = open("file", O_CREATE|O_TRUNC|O_WRONLY);

		lseek(fd,1024L*1024L,0); 	/* seek to 1 meg */
		
		write(fd,"I'm at 1 meg\n",13);

While my example is a bogus case, many database applications will
cause this type of event to occur. 

I have seen this caused accidentally by haveing one program writing 
to a log file in the "append" mode and the file was truncated by
another program while the first program was still running.  The 
append mode of the program caused the first program to write the
next log message at the same location it would have written the
message had it not been deleted, creating a big (37 meg) hole
in the file.  This was under SysV.2 and I don't know if that
behavior still exists in SysV or BSD.


All in all this is not a fatal problem, but you should track 
down that file (using the inode number) and verify that it is 
ok for it to have holes in it.  If not, and the data in 
the file is unneeded, remove the file.

If you really don't want to see these kind of messages, add
the -q option to fsck.
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| Conor P. Cahill     uunet!virtech!cpcahil      	703-430-9247	!
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