Why du command show different total in folder versus in parent

Question

I can't understand why I have different total size in a folder versus in parent.

That's my folder tree

bkp
|-- raid10
|    |-- folder_a 
|    |-- folder_b 
|    |-- folder_c 
|    |-- folder_d 
|    |-- folder_e 
|    |-- folder_f 
|    |-- folder_g 
|    |-- folder_h 
|    |-- folder_i 
|    |-- folder_j 
|    |-- folder_k 
|    |-- folder_l
|    |-- script.sh
|-- vm

I previously delete a big amount of file in that folder and I want to get my new disk usage.

sudo du -shc /bkp/*
756G    raid10
4.0K    vm
756G    total

Now I execute that command to get more info about the folder raid10:

sudo du -shc /bkp/raid10/*
13G     folder_a
178M    folder_b
15G     folder_c
2.3G    folder_d
32M     folder_e
31G     folder_f
31G     folder_g
49G     folder_h
131M    folder_i
4.7G    folder_j
392M    folder_k
4.0K    folder_l
4.0K    lost+found
4.0K    script.sh~
144G    total

Why the total is so different ?

I checked man du and tried some command, like --apparent-size, but same result. Also try without -s sudo du -hc /bkp/raid10/*, I have the same total but I see all directory...

I have some assumptions:

There is some cache in du command ?
There is a trash or hidden file that du can't read?

Some information about my files:

Disk filesystem is ext4
File are uploaded with rsync
Disk is not in raid

Any files starting with "." (dot character) inside the raid10 directory? Can you do `ls -al` inside the raid10 directory and see. Or you could run `find . -name ".*" -ls` to find such dirs/files recursively. — blackpen, Nov 02 '16 at 17:38
@blackpen Thank, I found my problem, I have a .trash-1000 folder in my raid10 — William Perron, Nov 02 '16 at 18:02

William Perron · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-02T19:31:27.170

4

To make du search for invisible just do:

#First part will get all invisible and second will get all non-invisible
du -shc /bkp/raid10/.[!.]* /bkp/raid10/*

Or cleaner command:

cd /bkp/raid10
du -sch .[!.]* *

Or enable shell option that matches hidden file with globbing

shopt -s dotglob
du -sch *

edited Nov 02 '16 at 19:31

answered Nov 02 '16 at 18:03

William Perron

485
7
16

1

Good one. Were you trying to find disk usage for hidden dirs/files only in /bkp/raid10 directory (OR also in current directory)? May be you want it as `/bkp/raid10/.[!.]*` ? – blackpen Nov 02 '16 at 19:02
Yes, you are right, my command is not good, I will edit for cleaner response. It's work because i'm in /bkp/raid10. – William Perron Nov 02 '16 at 19:13
2

Or just enable the shell option that matches hidden files with globbing (e.g. `dotglob` on bash). – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Nov 02 '16 at 19:19
1

@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams Thank for another alternative I will add – William Perron Nov 02 '16 at 19:27
@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams, Good one! – blackpen Nov 02 '16 at 19:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 02 '16 at 18:38

0

To look for hidden (names starting with a dot) files/directories recursively:

find . -name ".*" -ls

answered Nov 02 '16 at 18:38

blackpen

2,339
13
15

Why du command show different total in folder versus in parent

2 Answers2