ExaaaPID files in /var/preserve

[rotech22]

There are multiple files in this directory in the format shown - ExaaaPID - with the process ID number in place of PID. How/why are these created, and are they safe to delete? All I could find in searches referenced an Expreserve command in programming, but didn't give much detail. They look like logs of programs run, with different users as owners.

Roger

 

[aixqueen]

The /var/preserve directory contains old terminated vi sessions.
You can usually delete these.

While old vi sessions can be used to recover files that were abnormally
terminated, these files can be deleted. However, the user may want
to keep some of the newer ones in case users want to recover
files. To recover a file, execute the following:
vi -r filename or -r
This will list all available files that are recoverable.

 

[rotech22]

Thanks Queen. I ran the vi -r command, and it said there were no files. So, I assume we must have something else creating the files, since there are a couple of dozen in the directory. Also, now when I run the vi -r command I get 'Segmentation fault(coredump)' . Any idea what's going on there???

 

[aixqueen]

you didn't say what level of aix you were at....my guess is a bug...maybe a patch for the vi...although I do not remember seeing one.

You can clear the files if they are old......... I am sure the people that got bumped out of vi have long forgotten.

My guess is a bug on the other issue...but no reason for the core dump....
that I can think of.... Plain old vi works for you ok with core?

 

[rotech22]

We're at 4.3.3.0. Vi itself works OK, but I still get that error when running vi -r. I've now deleted the ExaaaPID files that existed, and I guess will just keep a watch on them.

Thanks again for your help.