i am using fedora 12. i got "no space in root directory" warning from the system..when i went through it, i found many of the space has been occupied by /var/log/httpd/error-log file. so i just deleted the file..
but when i check the space with "df -h" command.it shows 0% availability..the same problem occured before...but it solved when i restarted the system..but how to regain the space wihtout restarting the system?

please guide me..
Thanks in advance..

Look for some debug files in /tmp
Used to see some 2G ones.

restart the httpd deamon

Kind regards

The log file is in use, most likely by the syslog service (you can easily verify it using the lsof command). This means that the application creates a hard link and uses it to populate the log file: if you remove the file, the hard link is still there and keeps the disk space usage. You can restart the syslogd service using either
or
In this way the service frees the log file, the hard link is destroyed and the space is available again.

Anyway I would investigate why the error-log file is used so heavily. Maybe you can limit the logging of the httpd service acting on the related iptables rules. Just an idea.

If I may add to the above: removing a log file while software is running is nearly ALWAYS a bad idea.
Better to 'zero' the log file by usine a command line such as " > logfile ".
while less prone to causing problems, this also is not the BEST solution. Best is to drop services, clean up logs and temp files, then restart services. Best is not always an option if a service outage would impact a production process, so I have used this 'second best' solution of returned a log to 'zero' using redirection often.

If your "/" directory is made on LVM . then simply extend with lvextend command!

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Are your logs rotated?
Then you can run a script to delete the rotated logs.
You can set logrotate to rotate, when a certain size is reached

Kind regards

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The /var partition may be separate from the / partition, and there is no "simply" with lvextend. Running lvextend on a partition also means you have to run resize2fs, which you can't do on a mounted volume. If you do it, you'll wind up with a non-readable disk after you reboot. You have to be booted from a rescue CD/DVD, into single-user before doing those things.

If you're going to try to answer a question, please provide the OP with complete details, so they don't wind up with a broken system.

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