Re: cache directory filling up... help

On Fri, 17 Dec 1999, DANY KHALIL wrote:

> recently, one of the cache directories grew so large that the
> partition ran out of space. This caused squid to shutdown even though
> I had other cache directories.

If running out of space caused Squid to shut down then it was not a simple
matter of the cache exceeding the available space - Squid detects this and
shrinks the appropriate cache_dir.

> cache_dir /data1/squid/cache 8000 32 256
> cache_dir /data/squid/cache 3000 32 256
> cache_dir /usr/local/squid/cache 100 16 256
>
> The 3 Gig partition on /data ran out of space.

Have you left room on your 3 Gb for the swap.state file? This seems to be
a common mistake - there is a multi-megabyte file on each cache_dir that
Squid uses to index the contents of the cache_dir.

> My main question is as follows: Isnt therre some sort of parameters to
> set in order for objects in the cache to expire so that they get
> overwritten by recent objects?

Well, yes, obviously. Squid does this automatically; if you check the LRU
value in cachemgr.cgi you can see exactly how long Squid leaves objects
before over-writing them.

> and... if one cache fills up, isnt squid smart enough to use other
> cache directories with plenty of space? I know I can purge the cache,
> but I rather not do that manually.

Good question. I believe that Squid will use as much room in each cache
dir as you have told it is available, with the added ability to revise
down the size you specified if necessary. However, Squid does not
automatically manage its log files, including swap.state, and so they can
cause problems if you don't leave room for them.

--
 Kendall Lister, Systems Operator for Charon I.S. - kendall@charon.net.au
  Charon Information Services - Friendly, Cheap Melbourne ISP: 9589 7781