[CentOS] ext3 bug?

Tue Nov 29 21:15:08 UTC 2011
Dennis Jacobfeuerborn <dennisml at conversis.de>

Hi,
on one of my Systems I'm seeing a strange phenomenon. When I do a "ls 
/var/log/named/" that command just freezes. An strace shows that ls is 
endlessly doing this:

...
getdents(3, /* 66 entries */, 32768)    = 3888
getdents(3, /* 85 entries */, 32768)    = 5000
getdents(3, /* 70 entries */, 32768)    = 4128
getdents(3, /* 80 entries */, 32768)    = 4696
mremap(0x2b8b2b181000, 311296, 618496, MREMAP_MAYMOVE) = 0x2b8b2b181000
getdents(3, /* 82 entries */, 32768)    = 4736
getdents(3, /* 50 entries */, 32768)    = 2920
getdents(3, /* 53 entries */, 32768)    = 3088
getdents(3, /* 82 entries */, 32768)    = 4800
getdents(3, /* 73 entries */, 32768)    = 4248
getdents(3, /* 54 entries */, 32768)    = 3240
getdents(3, /* 51 entries */, 32768)    = 2944
getdents(3, /* 67 entries */, 32768)    = 3928
getdents(3, /* 63 entries */, 32768)    = 3712
getdents(3, /* 48 entries */, 32768)    = 2816
getdents(3, /* 59 entries */, 32768)    = 3448
getdents(3, /* 66 entries */, 32768)    = 3792
getdents(3, /* 60 entries */, 32768)    = 3440
getdents(3, /* 67 entries */, 32768)    = 3912
getdents(3, /* 83 entries */, 32768)    = 4808
getdents(3, /* 90 entries */, 32768)    = 5256
getdents(3, /* 50 entries */, 32768)    = 2888
getdents(3, /* 80 entries */, 32768)    = 4600
getdents(3, /* 70 entries */, 32768)    = 4088
getdents(3, /* 54 entries */, 32768)    = 3168
getdents(3, /* 63 entries */, 32768)    = 3760
getdents(3, /* 49 entries */, 32768)    = 2864
getdents(3, /* 67 entries */, 32768)    = 3960
...

The problem is that this directory only really contains two relatively 
small log files. I cannot remove the directory because rm gets stuck with 
the same problem. The only way is to move the directory elsewhere and 
create a new one though apparently after a while the same thing happens.

So I decided to take the system offline and do a fsck. The check went 
through without a single error so apparently the filesystem is fine.

Does anyone have an idea what could be going on here?

Regards,
   Dennis