Re: [ProgSoc] What are .nfs* files?

[Roland Turner <raz@nospam.arrakis.com.au>]

FatCat wrote:

>         I just found some .nfs* files on my /public_html which didn't seem
> to be there a while ago and I had no idea what they are and how they got
> there.  Are they anything important? Can I just delete them?

When you delete a file that is resident on a remote NFS server, the
server may elect to not delete the file immediately, but to rename it,
typically to .nfs<something>. This may be neccessary if for example the
file contains an executable that is still running on some other machine.
I do not know NFS server implementations well enough to state exactly
how these decisions are made.

Most UNIX machines capable of being NFS servers have a daily cron job
that rifles through the file system looking for these .nfs* files and
deleting them.

In general, if it's in your own directory, you can probably safely
delete it. Even if you don't, it should dissappear in time anway.

- Raz
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