Re: articles.gdbm file never get's smaller in size

Jim Hague:
> On 19-Oct-2003 Miernik wrote:
> > My /var/spool/noffle/data/articles.gdbm file never gets smaller in 
> > size.
> 
> Unfortunately, that's right. Noffle uses a gdbm file to store articles. Gdbm
> doesn't shrink files normally and desn't appear to be that good at reclaiming
> deleted space, though the gdbm manual page claims gdbm will reuse space vacated
> by deleted records.

In fact, it does. falloc.c:_gdbm_alloc() looks for the first available
block of sufficient size. It reclaims as much as it it needs and frees
the rest. falloc.c:_gdbm_free() merges adjacent blocks of available
space to prevent fragmentation. Some fragmentation does still occur, but
IMHO gdbm does a fairly good job of managing freed space.

Well. This applies to the old, musty gdbm-1.8.0 from 1999. But the
ancient, mouldy gdbm-1.7.3 from 1994 is not able to merge blocks of
available space.

Miernik, which version of gdbm is used by your distribution?


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