"Permission denied" running df as root?

[kit]

Hello all, thanks for reading a newbie post.

TL;DR: I am trying to solve permission errors running df as root.

System
CentOS 4.9
bash shell

So, my /var directory is at 95%, and I want to know what's sucking up space. I only have ssh access, no gui. So I run this:

du -sh /var/*

I don't much understand what it's doing, other than parsing du; I found the script after reading some forum posts.

Unfortunately, I get a lot of permissions errors:

du: /var/agentx: Permission denied
du: /var/amavis: Permission denied
du: /var/at/tabs: Permission denied
du: /var/at/tmp: Permission denied
  0B	/var/at
du: /var/audit: Permission denied
du: /var/backups: Permission denied
du: /var/db/dhcpclient: Permission denied
du: /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default: Permission denied
du: /var/db/krb5kdc: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.0: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.1: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.212: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.222: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.26: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.4294967294: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.4294967295: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.89: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.92: Permission denied
du: /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.97: Permission denied
du: /var/db/sudo: Permission denied
649M	/var/db
  0B	/var/empty
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/0/com.apple.revisiond.temp: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000004000001/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n000003800000t/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n000003800000t/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000084000021/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000084000021/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000bh00002w/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000bh00002w/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000c4000031/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000c4000031/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s800006_/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000sm00006d/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000sm00006d/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000th00006m/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000th00006m/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000tm00006n/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000vr00006y/C: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000vr00006y/T: Permission denied
du: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_ngzzzzzvzzzzzy/T: Permission denied
219M	/var/folders
du: /var/jabberd: Permission denied
4.0K	/var/lib
du: /var/log/krb5kdc: Permission denied
du: /var/log/shutdown: Permission denied
 96M	/var/log
  0B	/var/mail
4.0K	/var/msgs
  0B	/var/named
  0B	/var/netboot
 44K	/var/nmnetmgr
du: /var/pgsql_socket: Permission denied
du: /var/root: Permission denied
  0B	/var/rpc
du: /var/run/.vfs_rsrc_streams_0xffffff800bae09300: Permission denied
du: /var/run/mds: Permission denied
120K	/var/run
  0B	/var/rwho
du: /var/servermgrd/sessions: Permission denied
  0B	/var/servermgrd
du: /var/spool/cups: Permission denied
du: /var/spool/fax: Permission denied
du: /var/spool/mqueue: Permission denied
4.0K	/var/spool
du: /var/tmp/launchd: Permission denied
  0B	/var/tmp
du: /var/virusmails: Permission denied
9.0G	/var/vm
  0B	/var/xgrid
  0B	/var/yp

I am interested in the fix, but I also want to learn. Why does root get permission denied here? What precisely is the permission it needs - read? Execute?

I'm a linux newb, but I am a programmer, so you can talk to me like an adult.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-- Kit

[atreyu]

I'd guess you're not really root.

whoami;echo $USER;id -ru

[deep27ak]

post the output of these commands

#ls -l /var/

#cd /var
#du -sh

#who

[Krendoshazin]

As others have said, are you sure you're root? The root account should be able to read and modify anything, even if the permissions are set to 000. The only exceptions I know of are for FUSE filesystems which only allow the person who mounted the partition to access it. There are ways around that, though.

[Freston]

It appears at first glance that your Vitrual Memory(?) directory is eating a lot of space:

9.0G	 /var/vm

As for the permission denied errors, I'm not sure. I believe CentOS4.9 has SELinux, so that would be my first choice to look.

If you log in as underprivileged user to become root, you do not automatically also become unconfined_u in the SELinux security context.

Check with:

id -Z

It should give output as this:

unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0

[chiranjeevis]

verify that u r root user. If u r not the root then give the command

su

then execute the command