UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

Directory name : FIRST ( 28 files - directory size 27043 Mo )

Here is what I ve done :

Code:

tar cvf FIRST.tar FIRST

Then

Code:

gzip FIRST.tar

So far evrything's fine

then, I've used GUNZIP and extract the TAR. I used DIFF to check if there is no difference between files (extrat Vs original) : everything's OK

But, and here is my question :

the

Code:

du -sk

show a different size between the uncompress and untar directory and the original directory.

Original directory size : 27716394 octet
New gunzip and untar directory : 27716430 octet

I hope someone will explain me this. I am on solaris

Thanks

Directory files are metadata not user data, plus directories do not "shrink" the way a datafile can shrink by changing the EOF. If you create a directory and add files to it, say it becomes 512 bytes. If you delete all the files from it, the directory will still be 512 bytes.

Obviously the original directory was expanded, then some files deleted. The new directory was created on the fly by tar. As files were added from the tarball, the filesystem grew the directory to match.