[SUMMARY] Finding a file that doesn't exist.

From: Ian Mortimer <ian_at_physics.uq.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 13:41:42 +1000

Hi DU Admins.

The question was:

   I've recently been getting this error message nightly from cron
   on a PWS 433au running DU 4.0C patch level 5:

      find: /tmp/croutFYCaaaqDa : No such file or directory

   The crout is constant; the rest of the file name varies.

   The crontab entry that produces this is:

      20 4 * * * find /tmp -type f -atime +2 -exec rm -f {} \;

   If I run that command at the root prompt it gives no errors and
   I've never been able to find a file named crout* in /tmp.

   Does anyone have any idea why I'm getting that message or where
   these (nonexistent) files might be coming from.

Thanks to Dennis MacDonell, Antonio Azevedo, Girish Phadke,
Alan Rollow and Jim Belonis.

These files are the temporary files produced by cron to hold
the output from the command being executed. The explanation for
why they produce this error even though find is being run with
'-atime +2' came from Jim:

   the find process is looking at ALL files to decide when and whether.
   It apparently gets the names of all files early
   and later actually gets the inode. If the inode doesn't exist any more,
   bingo.

Jim also had a good explanation for why only one of our workstations
is doing this and why they became so regular in the last few weeks:

   I noticed fluctuations in frequency of these errors as well.
   But since it is basically a race condition, small changes in
   the speed of various things
   can make a big difference in whether the error occurs.

As it happens the machine displaying these symptoms has been heavily
loaded in the last few weeks running simulations.

So the mystery is solved for me and the good news is that it's
nothing to worry about.


Ian

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/ Ian Mortimer _/
_/ ian_at_physics.uq.edu.au ,-_|\ Department of Physics _/
_/ Tel: +61 7 3365 3436 / *\ University of Queensland _/
_/ Fax: +61 7 3365 1242 \_,-._/ St. Lucia, Brisbane _/
_/ v Queensland, Australia 4072 _/
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Disclaimer: Speaking only for myself.
Received on Mon Sep 07 1998 - 03:43:08 NZST

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