Subject: Re: df and du out of sync
To: James Webster <James3838@tsi-net.com>
From: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/09/1999 23:30:38
"James Webster" <James3838@tsi-net.com> writes:
> I've noticed that when I keep my system (1.3.2) up for long periods of
> times, the number of blocks listed in use by df and du differ by a large
> margin.  This is especially true on my log file partition.  Is this a known
> issue, and which is reporting the correct amount?

du tells you how much is in use in files reachable by walking the
directory tree.

df tells you how much statfs "knows" to be on the partition.

Perhaps you are unlinking large numbers of files in some process that
remains alive? That would cause du to report smaller numbers than df.

There are other possibilities, too...

Perry