Trouble copying a large number of files to last ext2 partition

[Laurent de Segur <ldesegur@mac.com>]

Hi,

I run into this bizarre problem trying to copy a large amount of files to
the last partition on my disk. The disk is 10GB and the last partition
occupies the last 1GB of the disk (minus a few extra spare sectors.)

I did an fschk on the partition and no problem is reported.

I've got a compressed zip file with about 30000 files I want to uncompress.
I know that the uncompressed size will end up filling the 1GB partition to
about 90%. 

If I unzip the file located on the same partition I get an error message
(can't create the file on device) for a few dozens files then the copy will
stop. At that point the disk is full at about 87%.

When I unzip the files on a previous partition, I don't have any problem.
When I then copy the files I just uncompressed from the previous partition
to the last partition, I get a message for the last few hundred files
stating that there is no space left on device. The space is 84% used and
there is about 161MB free.

If I persist doing this, I will eventually be able to unpack. The workaround
seems to be to cp -r from previous partition to the last which will not
succeed, then rm -rf the dir just created then unzipping to the last
partition directly. At that point, the drive is full at 90% which seems to
be correct.


My question is : is there a threshold on the last partition that would cause
the fs to report errors even if the partition is not completely full? Is
there a limit that the last partition should occupy?

If someone could give me a hint on how to track this problem, so I can
gather more info about this problem, that would be great.

Thanks for your help in advance,


Laurent