Subject: bug#7813: closed (Re: bug#7813: [Bug 700958] Re: tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 10:39:02 +0000

Your bug report

#7813: tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached

which was filed against the coreutils package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
7813: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=7813
GNU Bug Tracking System
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Subject: Re: bug#7813: [Bug 700958] Re: tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached
From: Jim Meyering <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 12:36:49 +0200
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Jim Meyering wrote:
> A. Bram Neijt wrote:
>> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=7813
...
> Thanks for the report.
> This was fixed for 8.6:
>
> commit 61b77891c2d9af299063850a0c4d1d721340cfff
> Author: Pádraig Brady <[email-masked]>
> Date:   Tue Oct 12 01:39:58 2010 +0100
>
>     tail: fix checking of currently unavailable directories
...
> With coreutils-8.6 and newer, you'd see this:
>
>     tail: inotify resources exhausted
>     tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling

Marked as done.

Subject: tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached
From: Bram Neijt <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:20:00 +0100
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Dear developers,

When tail -f has inotify enabled and hits the max_user_watches limit
of inotify, the resulting error message is very misleading.

To reproduce:
1) Make sure you will hit the limit if you try another inotify request
    sudo sh -c 'echo 10 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches'
2) Create a file:
    touch /tmp/hello
3) Follow it:
    tail -f /tmp/hello

Result:
tail: cannot watch `/tmp/hello': No space left on device

Expected result:
tail: cannot watch '/tmp/hello' because inotify reported: No space
left on device

It can be verified by using strace tail -f /tmp/hello:
inotify_add_watch(4, "/tmp/hello",
IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF) = -1 ENOSPC (No space
left on device)

I've also submitted this bug to launchpad for easier tracking at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/coreutils/+bug/700958

Greetings,

Bram Neijt