Re: prunefs/paths on AIX

[Bernhard Voelker]

On 4/12/23 09:59, AIXperts Consultancy ltd. wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> We have a problem with running updatedb on AIX filling up either /var or
> /tmp. This seems to come from sort generating temporary files, but it
> does not appear to be a problem on Linux. I have scrutinised sort but
> cannot explain the difference in it's default option form.

The first problem seems to be `sort`, so let's concentrate on that.
Why is /tmp or /var filling up?  Is the locatedb so huge, or are there
some pseudo paths like /sys or (undetected?) recursive mounts involved?

Second, what `sort` implementation is that?
If it's GNU sort from coreutils, then you can tell it e.g via the environment
variable TMPDIR where to write larger temporary files than in /tmp.

> However, I tried rectifying the issues by using prunefs, then
> prunepaths, neither which seems to work on AIX. The man page mentions
> /etc/mtab, which doesn't exist on AIX, so that could explain prunefs not
> working.

"neither ... seems to work" is a bit unspecific.
What's the actual command line you used?
What is the resulting `find` command?

Have a nice day,
Berny