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From: sfreed@ariel.unm.edu (Steven Freed CIRT)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: AIX 3.1 File system mystery
Keywords: AIX disk space file system RS/6000
Message-ID: <1991May18.184923.28785@ariel.unm.edu>
Date: 18 May 91 18:49:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: ariel.1991May18.184923.28785
References: <509@nwnexus.WA.COM>
Reply-To: sfreed@ariel.unm.edu
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM
Lines: 20
Originator: sfreed@triton.unm.edu


In article <509@nwnexus.WA.COM>, wjones@nwnexus.WA.COM (Warren Jones) writes:

> I've observed something very mysterious in our RS/6000 file system:
> "ls -l" shows a file of ~24 Mbytes, but "du" shows the directory
> using only ~17 Mbytes.

Probably a hole in the file. When I was in school we used to drive the 
sys admins crazy with this. (some weren't too bright). We would have like a 
1 meg quota, (yeah, that quota topic again ;-) and we would write a
program that would write 8k, do an lseek for about 500 megs and write
another 8k. They would come after us, trying to find out how we broke
the quota system, not stopping to think that the partion we were on was 
only 200 megs.

Data base files are usually the most common type of file with holes.

-- 

Steve.                    sfreed@ariel.unm.edu