Bob Hilliard wrote:
> I have never found any files in lost+found, but ls-l and du
> always show it as 12kb, even in a brand new file system. What is
> occupying those 12k?
Ok, first some background:
The size of a directory is dependant on how much space has been allocated
for filenames in the directory. If you make a directory, put many many files
in it, and then delete all the files, the directory will still be the same
size it had to be to hold all those filenames. (Remember a directory is
essentially just a file that lists the files that are in it.)
For example, make a directory with 1000 files in it, and then delete them
all:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>mkdir dir
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>ls -ld dir
drwxrwxr-x 2 joey joey 1024 Jul 1 18:15 dir/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>perl -e 'for (1..1000) { open (F,">dir/$_"); close F }'
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>ls dir |head
1 168 237 306 376 445 514 584 653 722 792 861 930
10 169 238 307 377 446 515 585 654 723 793 862 931
100 17 239 308 378 447 516 586 655 724 794 863 932
1000 170 24 309 379 448 517 587 656 725 795 864 933
101 171 240 31 38 449 518 588 657 726 796 865 934
102 172 241 310 380 45 519 589 658 727 797 866 935
103 173 242 311 381 450 52 59 659 728 798 867 936
104 174 243 312 382 451 520 590 66 729 799 868 937
105 175 244 313 383 452 521 591 660 73 8 869 938
106 176 245 314 384 453 522 592 661 730 80 87 939
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>ls -ld dir
drwxrwxr-x 2 joey joey 12288 Jul 1 18:15 dir/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>rm dir/*
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>ls dir |head
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp>ls -ld dir
drwxrwxr-x 2 joey joey 12288 Jul 1 18:15 dir/
It's still 12k.
Now there's a program called mklost+found, and on it's man page I see the
answer to your question:
DESCRIPTION
mklost+found is used to create a lost+found directory in
the current working directory on a Linux second extended
file system.
mklost+found pre-allocates disk blocks to the directory to
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
make it usable by e2fsck
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I think this is so that if e2fsck needs to put a lot of files in lost+found,
the directory will already be large enough to hold their filenames, so e2fsck
won't need to mess with resizing the directory on the fly when it's in the
middle of fixing a damaged drive.
--
see shy jo
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