[steveg_va]

Summary: something in /private/var is hogging a huge amount of available memory on my 64GB Runcore SSD, and I do not know how to identify it or how to fix it.

I installed a 64GB Runcore in my Mini 9. It is now running 10.5.8 (10.6.3 displayed the well-known audio-not! problem, so reverted back to 10.5.8). When I looked at available space on the disk (the Runcore SSD), there were only a bit north of 3GB remaining! But, my [visible] files only added up to about 26GB. I trimmed my mail folder, etc., but that hardly made any difference.

So, I ran Onyx and made invisible files visible. I also cleaned out caches. The cleaning got me up to about 5GB or free space, but still I could not figure out where all the rest was coming from. (BTW, I just re-checked, and I am back to having only about 3GB of free space! I wish that I knew what is happening here.)

Then, I started looking through the previously hidden directories, and found that /private/var was accounting for about 31GB!!! And, cleaning out the sleep files (disabling Hibernation with NetbookInstaller 0.8.3) only recouped a few GB (now taking up about 29GB). I checked all the subdirectories in /private/var, and they hardly account for much space. But several will not reveal their size (agentx, backups, and root), and though I can see them in Terminal with sudo, I do not know the command (and syntax) for discovering their size.

Is there anybody out there who can help me correct this without bringing down my machine?

TIA,

--Steve

[reflex]

du = simple and common terminal command for reporting disk usage

[steveg_va]

Originally Posted by reflex

du = simple and common terminal command for reporting disk usage

THANKS! I should've remembered that one. I am oh, so rusty with UNIX/*IX.

[Akki]

OmniDiskSweeper is a nice graphical tool to explore and clean a disk. Additionally tools like Yasu will run some of OSX's cron jobs etc. that clean out various temp spaces.


One Unix note about "disk missing" is that if a file is being accessed then removing it doesnt free the space until it's not accessed. So if you've got something writing a big file, you see that, delete the file, but don't kill off the program that was writing it, you may now have a stealth disk hog. Can always reboot to kill em all.

[steveg_va]

Originally Posted by Akki

OmniDiskSweeper is a nice graphical tool to explore and clean a disk. Additionally tools like Yasu will run some of OSX's cron jobs etc. that clean out various temp spaces.


One Unix note about "disk missing" is that if a file is being accessed then removing it doesnt free the space until it's not accessed. So if you've got something writing a big file, you see that, delete the file, but don't kill off the program that was writing it, you may now have a stealth disk hog. Can always reboot to kill em all.

This was a HUGE help. THANK YOU!

With OmniDiskSweeper, I found that the hogs were in /private/var/log/asl. I then found that these are Apple System Logs. And, a great reference on the web at:

Apple - Support - Discussions - Mac Mini G4 has huge ASL log files and ...

It gives a set of commands in Terminal that would: (1) stop the logger; (2) clear the .asl files, and then (3) re-start the logger.

The author's solution:
================================================== ======

I did this using the fallowing commands. EXACTLY as they are typed in the terminal.

The terminal can be found in. the utilities folder.

sudo -s
type in your password
launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd
rm /var/log/*.*
launchctl start com.apple.syslogd
exit

be very careful using sudo -s. you can delete every thing off the computer using sudo. You can also break the system if you start messing around with files. It's always a good idea to back up before altering the system. This is do at your own risk.

================================================== ======

In my case, I had to delete the .asl files in /private/var/log/asl, and I substituted

rm /private/var/log/asl/*.*

and rebooted. The new asl files are much smaller now. I do not know, however, if they will eventually take over my disk again. I am running 10.5.8 on the Mini 9. I just checked my Mini 10v, running 10.6.3, and the same thing is happening (large .asl files, but about 25 MB, rather than 57MB on the Mini 9). The Mini 10v has a larger HDD so I did not notice that it was filling up. I'll have to apply the fix there, too.

---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------

Thanks for the pointer to the Mini 9 sound fix. Right now, audio works on 10.5.8, so it ain't broke. I'll stick with it until a fix gets included in NetBookInstaller for SL.

you wrote:
Want the ALC268 mini 9 sound fix? Get it here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2377323/Mini9SoundPatch.zip

[nobo_mini]

/private/var are the same since /var is really a symbolic link to /private/var. So, either path will work.

ASL should be clearing out the log files every seven days. My Mini and MBP are working properly regarding this, so, wondering what might be "off" re: OPs situation? Downloaded/pirate copy and/or a mucked up plist for the service?

[steveg_va]

Nothing pirated. I bought and own the MacOS X DVDs. Could be a plist, but I have no idea what it would be called. Suggestions?

Many thanks,

--Steve