How come the script is filling up /usr? Where is it writing, with whose permission, and why? Ideally, the size of /usr should only change when installing patches, or upgrading your Operating Environment.
Do you script actually do what they are supposed to do? Do you scripts connect to the database, or are they just hanging there, trying to log on?
How fast do your scripts run "by hand"? If it takes 20 minutes by hand, and you start one every 15 minutes, you will run into problems.
To avoid having to many instances running, if I write cron jobs making database connections that fire every 15 minutes, I use a lock file to avoid multiple instances from running. Policies can vary: the one failing to get the lock exits, the one failing to get a lock kills the one holding the lock, or a combination of the two (exit if the lock is held by a process that started less then $X minutes ago - else kill the one holding the lock). Waiting for the lock usually isn't a good idea.
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
