Problem in RHEL4.5: df command

shielarc_21 · 10-08-2008, 07:25 PM

Hey Linux Gurus,

I have a problem in RHEL4.5, regarding the df command. I issued the df command but still no changes on the capacity of my storage. I tried to issue the partprobe command to refresh the kernel and no changes. I tried also to delete some files and still no effect. Do i have a bug/error?

I hope u can help me...GODBLESS!!!!

**wmorri** · 10-09-2008, 09:00 AM

Hi,

What happens if you open a new terminal window? Then type df? Does anything happen at all? Are you able to use any of the common commands, such as cd, or dir, or ls? Tell me what happens when you try to make a new folder in the Desktop folder as well, I am just curious to see if that works for you.

Cheers!

shuuhen · 10-09-2008, 05:10 PM

Just to make sure I understand the situation, it sounds like you have one or more partitions that do not indicate that the amount of free space has changed?

If this is the case, what filesystem do you use? It may be a bug specific to your filesystem. Did you do anything to the partition structure recently? I've personally never needed to use partprobe to have disk usage updated, but I use the traditional ext2/ext3 in most Linux setups.

Is this specific to one partition/drive or to all partitions and drives? You could test this with an external drive, even if just a USB flash drive.

Could you post the output of df from before and after adding (or removing) something like a 10 MB file?

lensman3 · 10-09-2008, 09:46 PM

If you are running from a GUI, I think most Linux version now move the file to the trash so the file isn't really deleted. You might have to "empty the trash" to see the "df" command show released disk. Also most Linux install do a "mkfs" at 4k blocks, unless you override it. So any file that is less that 4K long will only show one sector freed.

Standard Unix only flush disk updates about every 20 seconds, though I don't Linux has done this for several years.. You might have to run the program "sync" to flush disk changes to the disk.

This new disk that you added it must have been mounted under some "new" mount point. If you do a "df" do you see the "/dev/?????" part of the it. Also take a look at the "/etc/mtab" file. This file is maintained by "mount" and lists ALL mounted file systems. See if you see the mounted disk

Make a file using "cat /dev/urandom >/home/xxx/junkdirectory" and let it run for a while. This will use the random number generator and create a big file. Don't fill up your disk! I ran this for about 2 seconds and got a 12 megabyte file. Then do a "sync;df" and delete the file and see what the new df looks like..

10-08-2008, 07:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
shielarc_21 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Philippines Posts: 4 OS: RedHat Enterprise Linux 5	Problem in RHEL4.5: df command Hey Linux Gurus, I have a problem in RHEL4.5, regarding the df command. I issued the df command but still no changes on the capacity of my storage. I tried to issue the partprobe command to refresh the kernel and no changes. I tried also to delete some files and still no effect. Do i have a bug/error? I hope u can help me...GODBLESS!!!!

10-09-2008, 09:00 AM	#2 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Problem in RHEL4.5: df command Hi, What happens if you open a new terminal window? Then type df? Does anything happen at all? Are you able to use any of the common commands, such as cd, or dir, or ls? Tell me what happens when you try to make a new folder in the Desktop folder as well, I am just curious to see if that works for you. Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

10-09-2008, 05:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
shuuhen Manager Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Colorado Posts: 981 OS: Mac OS 9.1, Mac OS X 10.5.8, WinXP Pro, FreeBSD 6.0, Gentoo Linux My System	Re: Problem in RHEL4.5: df command Just to make sure I understand the situation, it sounds like you have one or more partitions that do not indicate that the amount of free space has changed? If this is the case, what filesystem do you use? It may be a bug specific to your filesystem. Did you do anything to the partition structure recently? I've personally never needed to use partprobe to have disk usage updated, but I use the traditional ext2/ext3 in most Linux setups. Is this specific to one partition/drive or to all partitions and drives? You could test this with an external drive, even if just a USB flash drive. Could you post the output of df from before and after adding (or removing) something like a 10 MB file? __________________ Has it been a few days since I replied to your thread? Don't panic! I'm a busy college student and may forget a post if I'm extra busy (or it might just take me a while to be able to do a decent reply). If you still need help and are awaiting my reply after a few days, PM me about it. When posting what errors you get, please give the full message. It makes helping you much easier. Last edited by shuuhen; 10-09-2008 at 05:15 PM.

10-09-2008, 09:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
lensman3 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Littleton, Colorado USA Posts: 470 OS: xp 64 sp2 Fedora Core 8 (vmware xp core 8 x32) Minix	Re: Problem in RHEL4.5: df command If you are running from a GUI, I think most Linux version now move the file to the trash so the file isn't really deleted. You might have to "empty the trash" to see the "df" command show released disk. Also most Linux install do a "mkfs" at 4k blocks, unless you override it. So any file that is less that 4K long will only show one sector freed. Standard Unix only flush disk updates about every 20 seconds, though I don't Linux has done this for several years.. You might have to run the program "sync" to flush disk changes to the disk. This new disk that you added it must have been mounted under some "new" mount point. If you do a "df" do you see the "/dev/?????" part of the it. Also take a look at the "/etc/mtab" file. This file is maintained by "mount" and lists ALL mounted file systems. See if you see the mounted disk Make a file using "cat /dev/urandom >/home/xxx/junkdirectory" and let it run for a while. This will use the random number generator and create a big file. Don't fill up your disk! I ran this for about 2 seconds and got a 12 megabyte file. Then do a "sync;df" and delete the file and see what the new df looks like.. Last edited by lensman3; 10-09-2008 at 09:47 PM.