🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000 23:57:24 GMT, Derek Shaw <he.is@bigfoot.com> wrote:

-snip-
>Another clue: if I run the command with a relative path it works fine:
>eg:
>   cd /
>   chattr +i var/home/userdir/*
>works, while
>   chattr +i /var/home/userdir/*
>fails (returns "Arg list too long").

Derek,

Try chattr +i "/var/home/userdir/*"
using the double-quotes.

Mark Post

To send me email, replace 'nospam' with 'home'.

It would appear that co-incidence is the culprit here.

It seems to be simply the case that /var/home/userdir/* generates too many files for something (either
chattr or the environment) to deal with.

I moved roughly half of the files to another directory, and the command works as before.

There is still the possibility (even likelihood) that I broke something while restoring the functions
of the server, but since I can easily "divide and conquer" in this case, I will do so, and remain alert
to the problem occurring elsewhere or coming back to bite me later.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other suggestions.

BTW putting quotes around the absolute path argument simply resulted in the response
  chattr: No such file or directory while stating /var/home/userdir/*

and that really does say "stating".

Cheers!
d.

Derek Shaw wrote:
> 
> I recently had an oops on a host, and after getting it working, a previously working
> commnand (chattr), run from cron is now returning "Arg list too long".  From poring thru past postings
> with Deja-news, it seems most likely that it is something to do with the environment size.
> 
> can anyone tell me where (if) the environment size is set?  Or any other information about this?
> BASH_VERSION=1.14.7(1)
> 
> I have a kludge working where I use find to process each file, and then execute the chattr command, but I would
> much rather use the format:
> 
>   chattr +i /var/home/userdir/*
> 
> Another clue: if I run the command with a relative path it works fine:
> eg:
>    cd /
>    chattr +i var/home/userdir/*
> works, while
>    chattr +i /var/home/userdir/*
> fails (returns "Arg list too long").
> 
> Any clues appreciated!
> 
> feel free to respond by e-mail, too (remember to edit the address).
> --
> This is a spam-resistant posting -- replace the he.is with derekshaw to send e-mail.
> 
> Derek Shaw
> Business Information Systems Victoria, BC.


-- 
This is a spam-resistant posting -- replace the he.is with derekshaw to send e-mail.

Derek Shaw
Business Information Systems Victoria, BC.

Derek Shaw wrote:

> I recently had an oops on a host, and after getting it working, a previously working
> commnand (chattr), run from cron is now returning "Arg list too long".  From poring thru past postings
> with Deja-news, it seems most likely that it is something to do with the environment size.
>
> can anyone tell me where (if) the environment size is set?  Or any other information about this?
> BASH_VERSION=1.14.7(1)
>
> I have a kludge working where I use find to process each file, and then execute the chattr command, but I would
> much rather use the format:
>
>   chattr +i /var/home/userdir/*
>
> Another clue: if I run the command with a relative path it works fine:
> eg:
>    cd /
>    chattr +i var/home/userdir/*
> works, while
>    chattr +i /var/home/userdir/*
> fails (returns "Arg list too long").
>
> Any clues appreciated!
>
> feel free to respond by e-mail, too (remember to edit the address).
> --
> This is a spam-resistant posting -- replace the he.is with derekshaw to send e-mail.
>
> Derek Shaw
> Business Information Systems Victoria, BC.

Just a thought, and I'm not sure if I have this correct, but perhaps this is a case for using xargs?
Perhaps a command like the following would work...

find /var/home/userdir /var/home/userdir/*  -prune  -type f| xargs chattr +i

--Kurt