what is /var/preserve? 2

[Einstein47]

I have been having a lot of junk filling up my /var filesystem. So I have been looking at all the biggest users. I have cleaned it up so that the /var/preserve directory is the biggest (at around 4 MB). But I don't know what the /var/preserve directory is for.

Can I safely delete this directory? Any clue on what it is used for?

Einstein47
(Trouble is a sieve through which we sift our acquaintances. Those too big to pass through are our friends. - Arlene Francis)

 

[RodKnowlton]

It's the preservation directory for ex and vi. When an editor session crashes, a dump file is created in /var/preserve. Users can then recover the files using the "-r" flag. They can list saved files by using "-r" with no arguments. They then recover a file by using "-r" with the file's name as listed (not the Ex* name from /var/preserve).

You can, and should, clean out old files, but don't remove the directory itself.



Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L

 

[Einstein47]

Just what I needed - thanks

Einstein47
(Trouble is a sieve through which we sift our acquaintances. Those too big to pass through are our friends. - Arlene Francis)