Unix SCO 5.5
Insuficient space on /dev - when I run df I get /dev 99% usage.

I have a large number of users (most of them are not with the company since Cretacic) and I want to delete them to make more space.
When I run rmuser I get rmuser: not found

if I type
su root
rmuser
rmuser: The system is in a secure mode -
to prevent against reusing uids, users may not be removed


I know that I can start the system in idfferent security contexts 0, 1, 2 but how do you cahnge that?

Help is appreciated

?? Where can I find my post??

I'm not sure how you got your /dev to report from df. df is a reporting mechanism for filesystems and normally /dev is buried within root and any space problems would be reporting root as running short.

In addition /dev normally doesn't have any files stored to take up any space, only several directory entries that consume several k. Unless you have had some sort of glitch and ended up with a core dump stored there.

this is what I have when I login:
Last successful login for root: Fri Nov 28 13:39:03 2008 on ttyp2
Last unsuccessful login for root: Tue Jul 22 14:35:54 2008 on ttyp4

SCO OpenServer(TM) Release 5

(C) 1976-1998 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
(C) 1980-1994 Microsoft Corporation
All rights reserved.

For complete copyright credits,
enter "copyrights" at the command prompt.

unix service by nuko strategies inc 416 762 8448 martin@nukoinc.com



you have mail
[=3F[0mTERM = (ansi)
Terminal type is ansi
/ : Disk space: 17.36 MB of 1000.00 MB available ( 1.74%).
/stand : Disk space: 5.30 MB of 15.00 MB available (35.39%).
/u : Disk space: 490.55 MB of 7003.15 MB available ( 7.00%).

Total Disk Space: 513.23 MB of 8018.15 MB available ( 6.40%).
#



And this is what I have when I run df:
# df -kv
Mount Dir Filesystem blocks used free %used
/ /dev/root 1024001 1006216 17785 99%
/stand /dev/boot 15361 9924 5437 65%
/u /dev/u 7171233 6668903 502330 93%
#

Your root filesystem is running out of space. Your issue is not one of removing users but of removing files that may no longer be needed.

You can use scoadmin and account management to find out where individual users are directed into the system and can sometimes tell when they last logged in, assuming that those who haven't logged in recently may no longer be employed. If no other users are pointing to the same area it is sometimes possible to remove the programs and associated data. But you really need to know the working of your system to be able to do it.

One issue you may find is that multiple users may get to the same place and that there is no specific files that belong to an individual.

Files in the /tmp area can usually be removed. Depending on what applications your users run their obsolete data can sometimes be purged and database files rebuilt to smaller sizes.

If you would list applications in use on the system someone familiar with the packages might give you some specific advice.

Thank you, edfair, for your reply.

Is there any way I can move space from /u to root?

Unfortunately, no. A resizing ends up reallocating space and wiping out what was there previously.

You could move stuff from /root to /u but that can require multiple steps and may corrupt applications if you touch the wrong files.

You can probably find files that can be deleted, but before you even try that make sure you have emergency boot disks to allow you into the system to undo anything bad. And rather than delete at first I would make a copy on the other filesystem so it can be recovered if needed.