question about reported directory size

[Robert Huff]

huff@>> dir /usr/lost+found/
total 192
drwxrwxrwt 2 root wheel 194048 Feb 23 13:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root wheel 512 Feb 23 03:38 ..

Now I understand the 't' in the permissions ... sort of.
a) does this mean the reported directory size will never
shrink?
b) is that the actual blocks in use, or an artifact?
c) is is safe to delete and recreate the directory?


Robert Huff

[Dan Nelson]

In the last episode (Feb 23), Robert Huff said:

> huff@>> dir /usr/lost+found/
> total 192
> drwxrwxrwt 2 root wheel 194048 Feb 23 13:01 .
> drwxr-xr-x 22 root wheel 512 Feb 23 03:38 ..
>
> Now I understand the 't' in the permissions ... sort of.
> a) does this mean the reported directory size will never
> shrink?
> b) is that the actual blocks in use, or an artifact?
> c) is is safe to delete and recreate the directory?

A directory is only truncated on the first file create after a delete;
this optimizes the common rm -rf case. Touch a dummy file in there and
check the size again.

--
Dan Nelson
[email]dnelson@allantgroup.com[/email]

[Robert Huff]

Dan Nelson writes:

> A directory is only truncated on the first file create after a
> delete; this optimizes the common rm -rf case. Touch a dummy
> file in there and check the size again.

"Who was that masked man?"
"I don't know, but he left this silver bullet."

Thanks.


Robert Huff