[lug] ls -l /var/tmp = drwxrwxrwt 16 root root 1478656 Mar 19 10:38tmp

[Bob Collins]

Hi D. Stimits & anyone else who is interested.

I decided to look at my laptop today since it had the same
type of files in /var/tmp as my desktop.  Except that it had
a smaller number of files.  I used mc to look at the files. 
I was able to open the /susehilf.xxxxxx directories and
found them all to be empty.  I deleted them on my desktop
machine using rmdir.  They were deleted in the blink of an
eye.

I don't know if you are familiar with mc.  I have used it
extensively for over five years without any problems.  This
is the first time I have used it to manipulate files in a
directory with over 73,000 files in it.  

My conclusion is that the large number of files is what was
slowing everything down. 

I have not heard from the taper developer yet.  I am not
sure if that is his way of say "RTFM" or not, but that is
what I intend to do.  

One and a half megabytes is not much space compared to the
2.3 gigabytes I backed up.

The problem is I have a 1 gig drive mounted as / and a 4 gig
drive mounted as /usr.  The root drive is the the drive with
/var/tmp on it  it is at 96%.  That is what started me on
this quest.

I will see if a different directory can be used for the
temporary files.  I remember reading in the man page that
/var/tmp was the default, so it sounds like I could change
it.

Thanks to everyone who responded.  

I had never used the find command before.  It certainly
works quickly getting a list of files from a directory with
a large number of files.  

I never did let ls finish, but I am sure it would have taken
a very long time to do the same thing. 

-- 
   Regards, Bob Collins
Experience is something you don't get until just after you
need it.
		-- Olivier