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File removal fails to free up disk space (Also df and du show different output) (Doc ID 1001624.1)

Last updated on JUNE 13, 2023

Applies to:

Solaris Operating System - Version 8 and later
Oracle Solaris on SPARC (32-bit)
Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit)
Oracle Solaris on x86 (32-bit)
Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)

Symptoms

Symptoms
Accounting for missing space on filesystems

Note: This documents assumes a $PATH variable which contain /usr/sbin and usr/bin.
Customer has a 100% full 350mb UFS filesystem according to "df -k". A 200mb file is found then removed via "rm", "ls" confirms the file was removed.

BUT, the "df -k" output still reports 100% capacity, (the df -k "used", "avail" and "capacity" fields have not changed.) It is often noted as well that "df -k" and "du -kds" reveal different
results.

Why didn't the filesystem give back the 200MB after removing the file?

Cause

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