In a nutshell:
Sparse file.
After you read that, try this script to check whether a file is sparse or is not sparse:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $file = shift @ARGV;
my(@status) = stat $file;
print "\n";
if ( $status[7] > ($status[12] * 512) ) {
print "$file is sparse\n\n";
}
else {
print "$file does not appear to be sparse\n";
}
system("du -hS --apparent-size $file");
system("du -hS $file");
print "\n";
The apparent-size file will usually be lt than the actual-size. If the apparent-size is gt the actual-size,
that might be a sign that something's wrong.