/usr/bin/du + crontab weird bug

[Mike Meyer]

In <ac00e00a0702091335v79861961s1bfe637666e30b42 at mail.gmail.com>, Victor Loureiro Lima <victorloureirolima at gmail.com> typed:
> Hello -hackers and -fs,
> 
>  Sorry for the cross-post but I didnt know where this particular post
> belonged to...
>  In a .br FreeBSD related mailing-list a user seems to have a found a
> bug when using /usr/bin/du and crontab together, I am posting it here
> to see what responses we get:
> 
> root at zion# du -s /etc
> 2544    /etc
> root at zion# cat /etc/crontab | grep du
> 30      19      *       *       5       root    /usr/bin/du -s /etc >> /tmp/lele
> root at zion# date
> Fri Feb  9 19:29:30 BRST 2007
> root at zion# cat /tmp/lele
> 5088    /etc
> root at zion# du -s /etc
> 2544    /etc
> 
> What gives that when "/usr/bin/du -s" is running from crontab is gives
> the exact double of entries in the directory but when it is running
> from console itself, it doesnt display the same amount of
> entries!?!?!?!

du uses the BLOCKSIZE environment variable to decide what size blocks
to display. Crontab commands don't run with your environment; they run
with a very restricted one. This is documented in the du manual page.

> Weird bug...

Someone probably set BLOCKSIZE in your environment. Try using "du -sk" to
force du to use 1k blocks.

	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.