Why would a device file in RH ES 4 have a non-zero size

[David Tonhofer, m-plify S.A.]

A simple question but mystifying for me:

  "Why would a device file in RH ES 4 have a non-zero size"

Context:

The device file in question has been created by an rsync backup.

The original device file
(e.g. /dev/agpgart)
as seen through stat(1) shows:

   Size: 0 Blocks: 0   "character special file"

The copy of the device file
(e.g. /var/archive/hourly.0/foomachine/dev/agpgart)
as seen through stat(1) shows:

   Size: 0 Blocks: 8   "character special file"

This is a pure ext2/ext3 filesystem question actually. Why should
ext2 allocate 8 blocks to a file that is in essence just an inode?

This phenomenon is common to all the device file copies. All of
them are 8 blocks large.

I check the filesystem with ext2fsck: no problems found.

Anyone who can help me scratch this itch?

Best regards,

-- David