UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hey Guys,
I am facing an annoying scenario, fewer times when I execute the sort command, it throws out on error saying that "No Space on available on /var/tmp/<temp file name>. May be it is set to /var/tmp directory. I was wondering, if I cant redirect the temporary file creation to any other directory. I came across this "-T" option, but was not sure about it.

Could someone help me this, its urgent.
An example could be of great help.

Thanks,
Abhishek S.

Usually sort responds to the TMPDIR environment variable.

Code:

export TMPDIR=/tmp
# or maybe your home directory
export TMPDIR=/home/abishek
#  sort will now use it
sort bigfile > newfile

Once set TMPDIR carries on for the login session

Code:

sort -T=/home/abhishek  bigfile >newbigfilw

This uses the new temporary directory -T indicates, but it just works for that one sort.

Your real problem is very probably that users have littered the /var/tmp directory with junk that was never removed.

Can you please post your code?

Hello Jim,
Thanks a lot, I was unaware of the fact that, sort would depend on the TMPDIR variable. Anyway I ll try that immediately and let you know. I think it should work now.

Well, the file I am working with has around 33 mil lines.. so thats where the problem is.. I think it should work fine with the command you have given.

Thanks a lot for your time, I appreciate it.

Abhishek S.