FC3 strange lastlog size

[Paul Howarth]

T. Horsnell wrote:
> Hi all,
> Can someone explain this please:
> 
> [root at ls1 log]$ ls -l /var/log/lastlog
> -r--------  1 root root 1254130450140 May 13 16:41 /var/log/lastlog
> [root at ls1 log]$ du -sk /var/log/lastlog
> 48      /var/log/lastlog
> 
> I presume the 'ls' command output is wrong (1.2TBytes) but how do
> I get the real length in bytes?

They're both right. The file is 1254130450140 bytes long and is 
occupying 48k of space on your disk. Excellent compression, eh?

Google for "sparse files" (which is what this is) for an explanation.

Paul.