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How the df command accounts for file size

When you run the df command from the mount point of a qtree for which a quota rule is configured, the output of the command shows the same space usage as the value specified by the quota report.

If quotas are enabled for the volume that contains the qtree, the space usage reported by the df command excludes blocks used by directories, ACLs, stream directories, and metafiles. Therefore, the reported space usage exactly matches the value specified by the quota report.

However, if the qtree does not have a quota rule configured or if quotas are not enabled for the FlexVol volume, then the reported space usage includes the blocks consumed by directories, Access Control Lists (ACLs), stream directories and metafiles for the entire volume, including other qtrees within the volume. In such a situation, the space usage reported by the df command is more than the value specified by the quota report.

Example of space usage accounted by the df command and a quota report​

The following quota report shows a limit of 10 MB for a qtree q1:
                                      ----Disk----  ----Files-----   Quota
  Volume   Tree      Type    ID        Used  Limit    Used   Limit   Specifier
  -------  --------  ------  -------  -----  -----  ------  ------   ---------
  vol1     q1          tree    user1   10MB  10MB       1        -   q1

...
In the following example, the space usage as the output of the df command shows the same limit of 10 MB (in terms of 1K blocks) because quota rules are configured for the qtree:
[user1@lin-sys1 q1]$ df -k
192.0.2.245:/vol/vol1/q1
                     10240  10240 0  100% /q1