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From:
Crystal Kolipe <kolipe.c@exoticsilicon.com>
Subject:
Re: make 'df -hi' more human readable
To:
Job Snijders <job@bsd.nl>
Cc:
tech@openbsd.org
Date:
Wed, 7 Jan 2026 11:51:42 +0000

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On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 11:41:15AM +0000, Job Snijders wrote:
> Before:
> 
> $ df -hi
> Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  iused    ifree %iused  Mounted on
> /dev/sd0a      986M    159M    777M    17%     2179   153339    2%   /
> /dev/sd0l      295G   47.6G    233G    17%    12019 19728651    1%   /home
> /dev/sd0d     31.0G    1.9M   29.5G     1%       13  4224945    1%   /tmp
> /dev/sd0f     29.1G    2.1G   25.5G     8%   212711  3727127    6%   /usr
> /dev/sd0g      1.0G    347M    644M    36%     5801   149717    4%   /usr/X11R6
> /dev/sd0h     19.4G    958M   17.5G     6%    31861  2611977    2%   /usr/local
> /dev/sd0k      5.8G   18.2M    5.5G     1%     2405   801113    1%   /usr/obj
> /dev/sd0j      5.8G    1.6G    4.0G    29%   122418   681100   16%   /usr/src
> /dev/sd0e      197G    130G   56.9G    70%     1794 13158652    1%   /var
> /dev/sd0m      2.8T   61.6G    2.6T     3%  8595400 803391798    2%   /var/www/htdocs/rpki
> mfs:50241      3.7G    1.3G    2.3G    36%   589843  1526379   28%   /var/cache/rpki-client
> mfs:65537      2.9G    464M    2.3G    17%       61   797505    1%   /var/www/htdocs/rpki/erik/snapshot
> 
> After:
> 
> $ ./obj/df -hi
> Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused  ifree %iused  Mounted on
> /dev/sd0a      986M    159M    777M    17%    2.2k   153k    2%   /
> /dev/sd0l      295G   47.6G    233G    17%   12.0k  19.7M    1%   /home
> /dev/sd0d     31.0G    1.9M   29.5G     1%      13   4.2M    1%   /tmp
> /dev/sd0f     29.1G    2.1G   25.5G     8%    213k   3.7M    6%   /usr
> /dev/sd0g      1.0G    347M    644M    36%    5.8k   150k    4%   /usr/X11R6
> /dev/sd0h     19.4G    958M   17.5G     6%   31.9k   2.6M    2%   /usr/local
> /dev/sd0k      5.8G   18.2M    5.5G     1%    2.4k   801k    1%   /usr/obj
> /dev/sd0j      5.8G    1.6G    4.0G    29%    122k   681k   16%   /usr/src
> /dev/sd0e      197G    130G   56.9G    70%    1.8k  13.2M    1%   /var
> /dev/sd0m      2.8T   61.6G    2.6T     3%    8.6M   803M    2%   /var/www/htdocs/rpki
> mfs:50241      3.7G    1.3G    2.3G    36%    590k   1.5M   28%   /var/cache/rpki-client
> mfs:65537      2.9G    489M    2.3G    18%      57   798k    1%   /var/www/htdocs/rpki/erik/snapshot
> 
> OK?

Whilst I like the general idea, the use of 1000 as a divisor instead of 1024
seems very wrong.

In computing binary multiplies were always the norm for units of storage for
very sensible, practical and logical reasons.

Whilst it could be argued that inodes don't share the same justifications for
1024 division, (they don't relate to physical memory cells in a grid layout),
the point is that OpenBSD has never, (and hopefully will never), embraced the
'kibibyte' and 'mibibyte' brigate, (I feel pain just typing those terms).

Even more so, none of the other columns of Size, Used, or Avail uses decimal
divisors with -h, so at least within df we have an inconsistency.