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Groups > comp.lang.python > #25210 > unrolled thread

Re: How to safely maintain a status file

Started byLaszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com>
First post2012-07-12 14:30 +0200
Last post2012-07-14 01:53 +0000
Articles 2 on this page of 22 — 12 participants

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  Re: How to safely maintain a status file Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-12 14:30 +0200
    Re: How to safely maintain a status file Hans Mulder <hansmu@xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-12 15:19 +0200
      Re: How to safely maintain a status file Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-12 19:43 +0200
      Re: How to safely maintain a status file Christian Heimes <lists@cheimes.de> - 2012-07-12 20:39 +0200
        Re: How to safely maintain a status file Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-12 18:20 -0700
          Re: How to safely maintain a status file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-13 12:12 +1000
            Re: How to safely maintain a status file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-13 03:13 +0000
              Re: How to safely maintain a status file Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2012-07-12 23:49 -0400
                Re: How to safely maintain a status file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-13 04:21 +0000
              Re: How to safely maintain a status file rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com - 2012-07-12 21:26 -0700
                Re: How to safely maintain a status file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-13 16:02 +1000
                Re: How to safely maintain a status file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-13 07:14 +0000
                  Re: How to safely maintain a status file Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-07-13 13:29 -0400
                RE: How to safely maintain a status file "Prasad, Ramit" <ramit.prasad@jpmorgan.com> - 2012-07-13 16:00 +0000
                Re: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file Chris Gonnerman <chris@gonnerman.org> - 2012-07-13 12:27 -0500
                RE: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file "Prasad, Ramit" <ramit.prasad@jpmorgan.com> - 2012-07-13 17:59 +0000
                  Re: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file Hans Mulder <hansmu@xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-13 20:28 +0200
                    Re: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2012-07-13 20:57 +0100
                    Re: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file Christian Heimes <lists@cheimes.de> - 2012-07-13 22:21 +0200
                Re: [Python] RE: How to safely maintain a status file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-14 04:19 +1000
                RE: How to safely maintain a status file Chris Gonnerman <chris@gonnerman.org> - 2012-07-13 15:15 -0500
                  Re: How to safely maintain a status file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-14 01:53 +0000

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#25288

FromChris Gonnerman <chris@gonnerman.org>
Date2012-07-13 15:15 -0500
Message-ID<mailman.2100.1342210874.4697.python-list@python.org>
In reply to#25245
On 07/13/2012 12:59 PM, Prasad, Ramit wrote:
> I lean slightly towards the POSIX handling with the addition that any 
> additional write should throw an error. You are now saving to a file 
> that will not exist the moment you close it and that is probably not 
> expected. Ramit
But if I created, then deleted it while holding an open file descriptor, 
it is entirely likely that I intend to write to it. I'll admit, these 
days there are those in the Unix/Linux community that consider using an 
anonymous file a bad idea; I'm just not one of them.

-- Chris.

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#25300

FromSteven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info>
Date2012-07-14 01:53 +0000
Message-ID<5000d126$0$29995$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com>
In reply to#25288
On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:15:13 -0500, Chris Gonnerman wrote:

> On 07/13/2012 12:59 PM, Prasad, Ramit wrote:
>> I lean slightly towards the POSIX handling with the addition that any
>> additional write should throw an error. You are now saving to a file
>> that will not exist the moment you close it and that is probably not
>> expected. Ramit
> But if I created, then deleted it while holding an open file descriptor,
> it is entirely likely that I intend to write to it. I'll admit, these
> days there are those in the Unix/Linux community that consider using an
> anonymous file a bad idea; I'm just not one of them.

A badly-behaved application can write oodles and oodles of data to an 
unlinked file, which has the result of temporarily using up disk space 
that doesn't show up when you do an ls. For an inexperienced system 
administrator, this may appear mysterious.

The solution is to us lsof to identify the unlinked file, which gives you 
the process id of the application, which you can then kill. As soon as 
you do that, the space is freed up again.

Like all powerful tools, unlinked files can be abused. Underpowered tools 
can't be abused, but nor can they be used.


-- 
Steven

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