Directory file size change

[admiincomp]

I have a standard Picture directory which should have a size of 4096 bytes but for some reason is larger. I removed the directory recreated the same directory name and place exctly the same files back into the directory and the Picture directory remained the same. I have a machne with this same condition.

What is the cause of the Picture directory getting larger ?

ls -l
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 8 Name Name 4096 Dec 11 18:18 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 18 Name Name 4096 Dec 8 22:56 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 12 Name Name 4096 Dec 11 21:41 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 3 Name Name 4096 Jun 23 03:14 Music
drwxr-xr-x 4 Name Name 12288 Dec 8 21:06 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 Name Name 4096 Aug 12 18:11 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 Name Name 4096 Aug 14 2022 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 Name Name 4096 Dec 14 23:03 Videos
drwxr-xr-x 6 Name Name 4096 Dec 6 18:19 'VirtualBox VMs'

[wizard10000]

I'm guessing you have a lot of pictures

Your filesystem reserves 4096 bytes for a directory's metadata. For *most* directories that's just fine but if the metadata is > 4096 bytes the filesystem will allocate more space for metadata. My e-books directory is also 12288 bytes but it has a couple hundred subdirectories

Completely normal.

[sunrat]

My e-books directory is also 12288 bytes but it has a couple hundred subdirectories

My Music folder shows 110592 bytes. Do I win?

[CwF]

Extra Credit
So, now we know it's related to the number of contents growing the meta data.
So what is it when it shows 160 bytes?
What is it when the directory shows 0 B?

[wizard10000]

My Music folder shows 110592 bytes. Do I win?

Absolutely

[fabien]

So what is it when it shows 160 bytes?

With /tmp/ mounted as tmpfs, an empty directory has a size of 40 bytes. Less metadata when there's no underlying filesystem I guess.
Edit: no need to allocate sectors rather, of course.

What is it when the directory shows 0 B?

I have this for example in /dev/pts/ (devpts pseudo filesystem).

[CwF]

Yes @fabien, I get 40+ for tmpfs mounts and 0B for inactive mounts.
I'm still experimenting with 'transient data' solutions. I have some images running tmpfs for ~/Desktop, Downloads, and others along with automounts and timeouts for datasets. The ~/Desktop one is neat, I can drag-n-drop a file from host to vm and it appears on the vm desktop, to be used or moved, without hitting the disk. Overall, have all data unmounted when not in use and random stuff we don't need a record of in memory. All ~/.profile activated. Fun. No major explosions yet...

Speaking of ~/Music, I have 5 mount points in there with 1 minute timeouts. The most obvious issue I thought would be access time. So fire up deadbeef with existing play list and it searches and reviews all data without triggering the mount (any of 5). Then hit play, and instantly playing. Maybe my brain is slow, but no delay at all. I'm a tad surprised it is so fast.

[dilberts_left_nut]

My Music folder shows 110592 bytes. Do I win?

Absolutely

Not so fast ...

Code: Select all

drwx------ 2 vmail vmail 6893568 Mar  5 16:46 /var/mail/archive/Maildir/.2023/cur/

[admiincomp]

It has nothing to do with the files in the directory. If I move all files to a second directory called Pictures2 you can see the directory size remains the same 4096

ls -l
total 48
drwxr-xr-x 7 name name 4096 Mar 10 13:11 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 19 name name 4096 Mar 12 03:09 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 13 name name 4096 Mar 11 02:42 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 3 name name 4096 Jun 23 2023 Music
drwxr-xr-x 6 name name 12288 Mar 10 12:23 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 5 name name 4096 Mar 12 16:29 Pictures2
drwxr-xr-x 2 name name 4096 Aug 12 2023 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 name name 4096 Aug 14 2022 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 3 name name 4096 Mar 12 13:38 Videos
drwxr-xr-x 6 name name 4096 Feb 7 10:53 'VirtualBox VMs'

[wizard10000]

I did the same thing with my ebooks directory - moved them to an ebooks2 directory. ebooks2 was at 4096 bytes until I rebooted the machine and then it read 12288 bytes, same as my original ebooks directory. My understanding is that ext4 doesn't truncate directory metadata unless you force the issue.

[admiincomp]

I have seen it before and it is always Pictures directory. What metadata would be associated with a directory?

[wizard10000]

I have seen it before and it is always Pictures directory.

Not on my machine.

Code: Select all

wizard@server: 06:42 $ cd /media/internal
wizard@server: 06:42 $ ls -l
total 72
drwxr-xr-x 297 wizard wizard 12288 Mar 12 16:20 books
drwxr-xr-x   6 wizard wizard  4096 Dec 29 16:04 desktop
drwxr-xr-x  12 wizard wizard  4096 Dec 27 07:01 documents
drwxr-xr-x  26 wizard wizard  4096 Sep 16  2021 humor
drwxr-xr-x   6 wizard wizard  4096 Feb 15  2023 laptop
drwxr-xr-x 112 wizard wizard  4096 Aug 29  2023 music
drwxr-xr-x  58 wizard wizard  4096 Feb 14  2023 pictures
drwxr-xr-x   2 wizard wizard  4096 Dec 22 03:55 plex-backup
drwxr-xr-x   7 wizard wizard  4096 Dec  6 00:01 prowlarr
drwxr-xr-x   7 wizard wizard  4096 Dec  6 00:01 radarr
drwxr-xr-x   6 wizard wizard  4096 Mar 15  2022 server
drwxr-xr-x  19 wizard wizard  4096 Mar 13 07:48 software
drwxr-xr-x   7 wizard wizard  4096 Dec 28 08:11 sonarr
drwxr-xr-x   6 wizard wizard  4096 Jul 12  2022 tablet
drwxr-xr-x   4 wizard wizard  4096 Mar  5 10:05 temp
drwxr-xr-x   4 wizard wizard  4096 Apr  3  2022 videos
wizard@server: 06:42 $

What metadata would be associated with a directory?

Information about the directory's contents.

[admiincomp]

The contents of the directory Picture and Pictures2 are identical. After seeing the size difference on Pictures I copied everything into the directory Pictures2, then i compared the directory using diff command. That is how I know it is not the files that causes the size difference.

I am suspecting an application.