I have found a similar behaviour using du on a cifs from Windows mounted directory, although only with files that contain spaces in their file names.
On ext3 filesystem I had no problems with such files. Can you give some more information about the filesystem, mounting, as well the kind of file names for which this behaviour occurs. Thanks, ** Changed in: coreutils (Ubuntu) Assignee: (unassigned) => txwikinger Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info -- du reports existing files as missing https://launchpad.net/bugs/53388 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs