SD card full but can't find the files responsible for it

miggedy · February 23, 2021 at 12:37 PM

I have libreelec running on a raspberry 3 and it reports that my SD card is quite full (10.3 GB of 12.5 GB used in mounted folder /storage)

Code

df -Th
=>
Filesystem           Type            Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs             devtmpfs      359.5M      4.0K    359.5M   0% /dev
/dev/mmcblk0p6       vfat          511.7M    141.1M    370.7M  28% /flash
/dev/loop0           squashfs      127.5M    127.5M         0 100% /
/dev/mmcblk0p7       ext4           12.5G     10.3G      1.5G  87% /storage
tmpfs                tmpfs         366.0M         0    366.0M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                tmpfs         366.0M      9.5M    356.5M   3% /run
tmpfs                tmpfs         366.0M         0    366.0M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                tmpfs         366.0M      2.6M    363.4M   1% /var
tmpfs                tmpfs         366.0M         0    366.0M   0% /tmp
//192.168.2.1/media  cifs           10.8T      7.4T      3.5T  68% /storage/media

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If I check that folder with du I only see 229.4 MB instead of 10.3 GB of files (I used the "x" parameter to exclude the as well mounted folder "media" in the storage folder which is actually my NAS)

Code

du /storage -hxd 1
=>
16.0K   /storage/lost+found
6.0M    /storage/logfiles
4.0K    /storage/videos
221.4M  /storage/.kodi
4.0K    /storage/.update
4.0K    /storage/downloads
268.0K  /storage/.config
1.5M    /storage/picons
4.0K    /storage/music
4.0K    /storage/backup
4.0K    /storage/screenshots
200.0K  /storage/.cache
4.0K    /storage/recordings
4.0K    /storage/pictures
4.0K    /storage/emulators
4.0K    /storage/tvshows
4.0K    /storage/.ssh
229.4M  /storage

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df is looking at the filesystem itself while du looks at actual file sizes, so it could be assumed that I have many thousands of zero sized files somewhere, but in total this folder only contains 7000 files (after I deleted all thumbnails and picons):

Code

find /storage -path /storage/media -prune -o -type f | wc -l
=> 7.040

with a "normal" block size of 4 KB:

Code

tune2fs -l /dev/mmcblk0p7
=>
tune2fs 1.45.3 (14-Jul-2019)
Filesystem volume name:   <none>
Last mounted on:          /storage
Filesystem UUID:          a11b79f0-f43d-44ef-87b5-9ade652046b8
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Filesystem flags:         unsigned_directory_hash
Default mount options:    user_xattr acl
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              838832
Block count:              3354112
Reserved block count:     167705
Free blocks:              565256
Free inodes:              830709
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
Reserved GDT blocks:      818
Blocks per group:         32768
Fragments per group:      32768
Inodes per group:         8144
Inode blocks per group:   509
Flex block group size:    16
Filesystem created:       Sat Dec  9 14:03:05 2017
Last mount time:          Thu Jan  1 01:00:02 1970
Last write time:          Thu Jan  1 01:00:02 1970
Mount count:              125
Maximum mount count:      -1
Last checked:             Sat Dec  9 14:03:05 2017
Check interval:           0 (<none>)
Lifetime writes:          10 GB
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:               256
Required extra isize:     28
Desired extra isize:      28
Journal inode:            8
Default directory hash:   half_md4
Directory Hash Seed:      3a1f121c-87ad-4876-9f90-f8d1837a42e2
Journal backup:           inode blocks

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One further reason I read why du can differ from df so much is that there may be deleted files to which some process still has a handle on and therefore space is not freed by now. But I checked this as well and there is not pending file deletion (plus I did a reboot and the issue remains).

Code

find /proc/*/fd -ls 2> /dev/null | grep '(deleted)'
=> (nothing)

Does anybody have an idea what else could cause this? Where are the 10 GB clogging my SD card?

**HiassofT** · February 23, 2021 at 2:05 PM

Try without /storage/media mounted - if you copied stuff to /storage/media (on the SD card) that won't show up with du -x - as the smb mount is hiding that.

so long,

Hias

miggedy · February 24, 2021 at 7:10 AM

You are right. There have been recordings under that folder on the SD card. Probably the NAS wasn't available at some times when recordings started and therefore the recordings have been stored on the SD card. I moved them now to the NAS and the disk space is freed. Thanks.

ciberboy · July 17, 2023 at 4:39 PM

I have the same exact issue and I can't identify what is getting my drive full.

Same setup.

Anybody that can help?

tokul · July 18, 2023 at 12:06 PM

Quote from ciberboy

I have the same exact issue and I can't identify what is getting my drive full.
Same setup.
Anybody that can help?

Answer is above your post. "You were right".

If you have any mount points setup above directory/mount point that has mismatching used capacity, get those mount points unmounted and check what you have under them.