Return-Path: pg_adm@postgres.berkeley.edu Received: by postgres.Berkeley.EDU (5.61/1.29) id AA17433; Mon, 13 Apr 92 11:01:37 -0700 Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 11:01:37 -0700 Message-Id: <9204131801.AA17433@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> From: Aaron Sawdey Subject: .nfsXXXX files To: postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu Sender: pg_adm@postgres.berkeley.edu Under UNIX, if a process opens a file and then unlinks it (removes it) without closing it, the file is still open. The program can write to it and read from it and the file exists without a directory entry until the process exits. When the process exits, the disk space used by the file is released. Under NFS, a file cannot exist on a server without a name by which to access it. So NFS just renames the file to .nfsXXXX where XXXX is some unique number, and tries to remove the file when the process exits. Unfortunately, the system is not quite so foolproof; if the process exits abnormally these .nfs files may be left around. Aaron Sawdey aaron@morgana.pubserv.com Publication Services, Inc. 1802 S. Duncan Rd. Champaign, Illinois 61821 (217) 398-2060