strange "file system was modified" report from e2fsck

mke2fs -j
mount it
Fill disk as root with one huge >150GB file umount it
e2fsck -f -v: ok
mount it
rm 150 GB file
umount it
e2fsck -f -v: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

After removing the big file and umounting the ext3 partition, e2fsck -f -v invariably reports that the file system has been modified. This doesn't happen for a small file.

e2fsck 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/hdc1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

      11 inodes used (0%)
       0 non-contiguous inodes (0.0%)
         # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0

621574 blocks used (1%)
0 bad blocks
0 large files

0 regular files
2 directories
0 character device files
0 block device files
0 fifos
0 links
0 symbolic links (0 fast symbolic links)
0 sockets
--------
2 files

What is going on? should I be worried about it?

This was on an Redhat FC1 system with plain 2.4.26. tune2fs says:

# tune2fs -l /dev/hdc1
tune2fs 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
Filesystem volume name:   <none>
Last mounted on:          <not available>
Filesystem UUID:          67b89aec-eb20-4e37-ae19-4263319496f6
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype sparse_super
Default mount options:    (none)
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              19546112
Block count:              39072080
Reserved block count:     1953604
Free blocks:              38450506
Free inodes:              19546101
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
Blocks per group:         32768
Fragments per group:      32768
Inodes per group:         16384
Inode blocks per group:   512
Filesystem created:       Thu Jul  8 21:26:18 2004
Last mount time:          Fri Jul  9 18:10:51 2004
Last write time:          Fri Jul  9 18:12:48 2004
Mount count:              0
Maximum mount count:      34
Last checked:             Fri Jul  9 18:12:48 2004
Check interval:           15552000 (6 months)
Next check after:         Wed Jan  5 17:12:48 2005
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:               128
Journal inode:            8
Default directory hash:   tea
Directory Hash Seed:      f719a1f4-e416-4699-b8d8-ce645600cd6d

Frank

The "RO_COMPAT_LARGE_FILE" flag is set when a > 2GB file is created, but it can't be cleared when the file is removed since it isn't refcounted. This can only be cleared by e2fsck if no other large files exist.

See no "large_file" flag.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://members.shaw.ca/adilger/ http://members.shaw.ca/golinux/