Program does not release diskspace even I have deleted them

casualzone · 08-05-2010, 02:45 AM

I run whole batch of simulations and taking a lot of diskspace (8Gbytes). I have deleted them after examine the results. However, the diskspace remained the same even though i have deleted the files (rm -rf *). Sound like the program does not release the diskspace (maybe in cache or virtual memory? ). It only release the diskspace after i exit completely the program.

Is there a way to ask the program to release the diskspace without exit the program?

druuna · 08-05-2010, 03:09 AM

Hi,

Was the program that creates these log files still running when you removed the log files?

If so there the possibility that the program is still connected to the old log files (invisible for the user, but the removed files are still present). Restart the program to release the old log files.

Hope this helps.

Guttorm · 08-05-2010, 03:10 AM

Hi

This is normal with Linux. If a program opens a file, and the file is deleted while the file is open, the disk space is not free until the file is closed.

You can see this if you for example start playing a movie. Then you delete the file. The movie will continue as if nothing happened. When the movie is finished (or you stop it), the disk space becomes free and the file is gone.

So unless the program can close and reopen the files, you will need to exit it and start again.

casualzone · 08-05-2010, 11:30 PM

I am not sure about which log file it is connected.

However, i use df -ah . to check the diskspace which does not link to the program. In other words, I did not use the program to check the diskspace but i did check in the terminal with df command.

I did close the result viewer of the program when checking diskspace, hence the program does not use the results or files anymore.

sounds like no alternative way besides exiting the program..