HELP! /var/adm/usracct out of control...

[John Lyman]

I have a small problem...  Since last Monday, August, 13, sometime shortly 
after 01:00 the file /var/adm/usracct grows out of control.  My machine, 
infer1, is a Sun 3/260 with 16Meg of memory, and is a very generic machine.  

Infer1 serves as the corporate mail server and mailhost for the internet 
via a uucp connection.  Our network has approx 50 workstations of varying 
types on it.  The master yp/nis server is a Sun 4/490 which was upgraded 
to SunOS 4.1 the previous weekend.

As can be seen from the output below, Infer1 has a single Xylogics/Fujitsu 
333 Meg disk on it.  The root partition is 7.8 Meg.

Obviously, when /var/adm/usracct grows to ~500Meg, something is wrong, and 
Infer1, which is running SunOS 4.0.3 believes the root partition is full, 
and ceases to function properly.

Until last Monday, Infer1 has functioned flawlessly for over a year without
a hitch.

Any clues, hints or ideas where my problem is would be appreciated.

Additional info available upon request...


Output from df before removing /var/adm/usracct
-----------------------------------------------

Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/xy0a               7830    7611       0   108%    /
/dev/xy0d              63447   49410    7692    87%    /usr
/dev/xy0e             141777   70063   57536    55%    /usr1


AUGUST 18, 1990
---------------
drwxr-sr-x  2 bin      staff         512 Aug 19 11:25 .
drwxr-sr-x  9 bin      staff         512 Aug 13 07:57 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       99936 Aug 18 01:23 acct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff           0 May 20 14:40 aculog
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff           0 Aug 17 10:49 lpd-errs
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         994 Aug 18 04:14 messages
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff      122880 Aug 18 01:57 messages.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Aug  6 10:47 messages.1
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         430 Aug  2 19:27 messages.2
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Jul 24 16:58 messages.3
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff           0 Aug 17 10:50 sacacct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff    592707724 Aug 18 01:34 usracct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff         324 Aug 19 11:24 wtmp


Output fron df after removing /var/adm/usracct
----------------------------------------------

Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/xy0a               7830    2161    4886    31%    /
/dev/xy0d              63447   49410    7692    87%    /usr
/dev/xy0e             141777   70063   57536    55%    /usr1




Previous listings of /var/adm
-----------------------------

AUGUST 17, 1990
---------------
drwxr-sr-x  2 bin      staff         512 Aug 16 17:46 .
drwxr-sr-x  9 bin      staff         512 Aug 13 07:57 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff      676864 Aug 17 01:13 acct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff           0 May 20 14:40 aculog
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       19464 Aug 17 10:37 lpd-errs
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff      119932 Aug 17 10:38 messages
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Aug  6 10:47 messages.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         430 Aug  2 19:27 messages.1
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Jul 24 16:58 messages.2
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         191 Jul 16 20:23 messages.3
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff       16740 Aug 11 00:15 savacct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff    491782340 Aug 17 01:24 usracct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       80244 Aug 17 12:45 wtmp


AUGUST 15, 1990
---------------
drwxr-sr-x  2 bin      staff         512 Aug 15 10:45 .
drwxr-sr-x  9 bin      staff         512 Aug 13 07:57 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff      464768 Aug 15 01:17 acct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff           0 May 20 14:40 aculog
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       63056 Aug 15 10:45 lastlog
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       17384 Aug 15 04:49 lpd-errs
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff       98304 Aug 15 08:33 messages
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Aug  6 10:47 messages.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         430 Aug  2 19:27 messages.1
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff          47 Jul 24 16:58 messages.2
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff         191 Jul 16 20:23 messages.3
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff       16740 Aug 11 00:15 savacct
-rw-r--r--  1 root     staff    524812484 Aug 15 01:28 usracct
-rw-rw-r--  1 root     staff       80244 Aug 15 10:45 wtmp



I will sumarize responses, and when the problem is determined identify
and ppost the fix.

Thanks in advance for any help.


-- 
John R. Lyman  =>  Inference Corporation 
               =>  213-322-0200 x200
               =>  lyman at inference.com
               =>  ...!cit-vax!jato!infer1!lyman