df showing 100% used, when du shows only 20% being used.

Mike Burger mburger at bubbanfriends.org
Thu Jun 4 14:02:48 UTC 2009


> I have a machine here where df shows a mount point being 100% full.
> However, when you do a du -h it shows that only 1.1G of the 5G is being
> used.
> How can I make sure that df is reporting accuratly?

Most likely, the df output is correct.  Chances are that there's a process
that has file handles open on that filesystem.  Those open file handles,
even if the file has been "deleted", hold open space in that filesystem
until the process that owns the file handle is closed.

Start by running "fuser /path/to/filesystem" or "fuser /dev/device" where
"device" is the /dev/ entry shown in the left-most column when you run df.
 This will show you the PIDs of any process that has a presence in that
filesystem.  Note...if the PID has the letter "c" at the end of it, it's a
shell, not necessarily an application process.

If you can stop (and if necessary restart) those processes, chances are
that whatever was holding the space will then release it, and your du and
df outputs will be more closely aligned.

-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

Visit the Dog Pound II BBS
telnet://dogpound2.citadel.org or http://dogpound2.citadel.org

To be notified of updates to the web site, visit:

https://www.bubbanfriends.org/mailman/listinfo/site-update

or send a blank email message to:

site-update-subscribe at bubbanfriends.org




More information about the redhat-list mailing list