[X-Unix] UFS volume full?

[Kevin Stevens]

I have a 20GB UFS partition on my G5, which is used exclusively for a 
news spool (using leafnode).  Typically, this runs about 10-15% full, 
with maybe 50 directories containing thousands of files.  However, 
intermittently, the volume will show as being full - df reports 100% 
usage (space, not inodes), and write attempts to the volume fail with 
disk full messages.

When I realize this, I go into the mail spool directory and start doing 
du -sh summaries on each of the dozen news subdirectories, to see where 
all the space has gone.  Inevitably, I'll get about halfway through 
this process, with the directories reporting normal usage; when the 
volume will revert to normal status.  Note that I'm not deleting any 
files during this process, just touching them with du.

Any thoughts?  I was thinking inodes or sparse files somehow, but 
nothing really fits the symptoms.  If I hit a file limit in a 
directory, would that report the whole volume as full?

KeS