[NTLUG:Discuss] Getting rid of a core with a link

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Sat, Sep 10, 2005 at 12:48:57PM -0400, Russ wrote:
> I'm seeking assistance with a situation that I don't understand.
> 
> I've got a core file that was created when a power outage (no UPS)
> occurred during an update of my Linux system.  Pardon my description
> if it isn't clear.  I'd like to get rid of it because it's a 2.7 mB
> file on a 8 mB hard drive.  It's owned by root and exists as link to
> /proc/kcore.
> 
> This the status of the core:
> 
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    11 2005-09-09 09:30 core -> /proc/kcore

Since it's a symbolic link, it doesn't take up much space on the
device; in fact, as indicated above, the symlink itself is only 11
bytes long.  So, removing this isn't going to recover a lot of
disk space.

Even the file it's symlinked to -- /proc/kcore -- isn't really on disk.
Files in the /proc filesystem are dynamic and provide a variety
of views into the kernel, they aren't truly on the hard drive itself.
So, /proc/kcore is likely just a way to look at the kernel core 
(in memory) *as if* it were a file on disk.

At any rate, I'd leave the file there, it's not eating up much space.

You may also be confusing this link with files named "core" that result
from programs terminating abnormally -- commonly called "core dumps".
But that doesn't seem to be at all what this particular "core"
represents.

I am curious to know where the core symlink is located (full path), 
and how you arrived at the 2.7mB size for it.

Hope this helps!

Pm