How to Locate Ownerless Files That May Affect Computer Performance (322638)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 2.1 OEM Only
  • Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 2.2 OEM Only
  • Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 2.3 OEM Only
  • Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 3.0
  • Interix 2.2.1
  • Interix 2.2.2
  • Interix 2.2.3
  • Interix 2.2.4
  • Interix 2.2.4.03
  • Interix 2.2.4.08
  • Interix 2.2.5
This article was previously published under Q322638

SUMMARY

If a file does not have an owner, the computer cannot cache the owner name and the group identifier (ID). If the computer has many files that do not have owners, computer performance may be affected. This article describes how to locate ownerless files.

MORE INFORMATION

If a computer has many owernless files, each time you use a utility that retrieves the file meta data, the computer must retrieve information that is typically cached. To determine if the computer has ownerless files that are open in the C shell or the Korn shell, run the following command in a directory:

$ ls -l

When you view the output, if numbers appear in the space where the owner's ID and owner's primary group ID are typically located, the file does not have an owner. The following text is an example of output you receive for an ownerless file:

-rwxrwxrwx 1 4334501 9823489 10797 Jul 6 2001 Guide.txt

Typicically, ownerless files are created if you delete a user but you do not delete the user's files (these files are now orphaned). To resolve this issue, use the chown command to assign valid credentials to the ownerless files.

For information about the chown command, see the Windows Services for UNIX Help file or type the following command from the C shell or the Korn shell to view the manual pages for the chown command:

$ man chown

If the computer has many ownerless files, the following command-line utilities may suffer performance degradation:
  • ls -l (not ls)
  • tar or pax
  • chmod
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/23/2003
Keywords:kbenv kbinfo KB322638
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