This often happens when there is a deleted file that is still open. Technically, the space is inaccessible from du because the filename is gone, but the space is not yet free from the filesystem because some program is using it.
Common culprits are log files in /var/log that have been rotated but the syslog process or daemon is still holding on to the rotated log file. You'll want to run lsof to check for any open deleted files like that. On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Michael Tinsay <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for the tip. With it I dug a little deeper into the filesystem... > The / partition is an ext3 fs with 4KB blocksize (accdg to dumpe2fs). I > have 76,064 files in this partition. Assuming that I'm wasting about 1 > block per file, it would equate to 297MB of wasted space. While it is a big > pile of wasted space, it is still not 1.6GB -- there's still 1.3GB that I > can't account for. > > --- mike t. > > ________________________________ > From: Randell <[email protected]> > To: Michael Tinsay <[email protected]>; Philippine Linux Users' Group > (PLUG) Technical Discussion List <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, 24 November 2011, 21:02 > Subject: Re: [plug] MISSING: 1.6GB in root > > Here's an explanation I found in the nets: > > difference between disk usage (du) and free blocks displayer (df) > if a file makes use of 2KB of 1 MB block > du will display that the file had used only 2KB > but df would display that 1 MB had been used as its displaying only the free > blocks available, > even if 1 byte is used in 1MB free block, the free block is no more a free > block and its used. > > Source: http://www.unix.com/unix-dummies-questions-answers/29223-sco-unix-disk-space.html > -- > Randell > http://nullpointer.ph/ > > On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 6:00 PM, Michael Tinsay <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi. > > In one of my servers, "df -h" produces: > Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on > /dev/md0 3.7G 3.7G 0 100% / > varrun 3.0G 104K 3.0G 1% /var/run > varlock 3.0G 0 3.0G 0% /var/lock > udev 3.0G 108K 3.0G 1% /dev > devshm 3.0G 0 3.0G 0% /dev/shm > /dev/md1 3.7G 288M 3.3G 9% /var > Note that / is 100% used up (3.7GB). > But if a run (as root) "du -chxP /", the total it gives me is only 2.1GB. > Where could the 1.6GB difference be? > > --- mike t. > _________________________________________________ > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > > > _________________________________________________ > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > > > _________________________________________________ > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > -- This email is: [ ] actionable [ ] fyi [ ] social Response needed: [ ] yes [ ] up to you [ ] no Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [ ] soon [ ] none _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
