Mountpoint directory listing is large

[reclspeak]

A directory is just a file...a directory is just a file...a directory is just a file...

I have a 5.1 LPAR with a 400GB file system;

/dev/mnrg1prlv2 410255360 65261732 85% 416 1% /mndbpr1db2/mndbinp1


The mountpoint directory reports a size of 22MB

drwxr-sr-x 5 mndbinp1 mndbinp1 22864384 04 May 08:39 .


I wondered if it related to a large number of files and links, but the file system (which isn't mounted over a previous directory) has few files and directories;

du -k .
4 ./lost+found
20 ./NODE0000/sqldbdir
24 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/db2event/db2detaildeadlock
28 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/db2event
44 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/SQLOGDIR
19628 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/SQLT0000.0
8 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/SQLT0001.0
8 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/SQLT0002.0
732 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/TSASNCA
24 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/TSASNUOW
788 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/TSASNAA
136 ./NODE0000/SQL00002/REPMSPACE4
277548292 ./NODE0000/SQL00002
277548316 ./NODE0000
66981892 ./backups
344552544 .

Anyone any clues as to why this directory is particular large, when I'm perhaps more used to 512 or 4096 byte directory sizes?

Many thanks


recl

 

[p5wizard]

The dir size expands as more files are added. Then after the files are removed, the dir does not shrink, unless you backup/remove/restore the FS.

Perhaps the dir contained a lot more files in the past?


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[KenCunningham]

Interesting. Have there been many files (temporary or otherwise) created and then deleted within it? That could cause this type of 'fat' directory.

 

[KenCunningham]

Sorry p5 - posting at the same time!

 

[reclspeak]

Interesting. Have there been many files (temporary or otherwise) created and then deleted within it? That could cause this type of 'fat' directory."

It's a new file system-albeit rather large (400GB).

A colleague has found a possible explanation;

"In traditional UNIX systems, it is the size allocated for the directory itself, to hold file meta-data (8 bytes plus the null-terminated actual name of the file). A directory is simply a regular file, with structured
data in it, that the O/S interprets in a special manner. For 'classical' UNIX filesystems (e.g. BSD 4.2 FFS) space for the directory 'contents' is usually allocated in 512-byte increments."

...which might be relevant or not. The last sentence seems to fit the bill lthough.


recl