Why would an rsynced device file have a non-zero block count?

[David Tonhofer, m-plify S.A.]

Hello, I guess someone must know the answer to this conundrum.

Context:

The device file in question has been created by an rsync backup.

The original device file (e.g. /dev/agpgart) as seen through stat(1) shows:


   Size: 0 Blocks: 0   "character special file"


The copy of the device file (e.g. /var/archive/hourly.0/foomachine/dev/agpgart) as seen through stat(1) shows:


   Size: 0 Blocks: 8   "character special file"


This is a pure ext2/ext3 filesystem question actually. Why should
ext2 allocate 8 blocks to a file that is in essence just an inode?
SELinux ACL? Preallocation? This phenomenon is common to all the device
file copies. All of them are 8 blocks large. I checked the filesystem
with ext2fsck: no problems found.

Anyone who can help me scratch this itch?

Best regards,

-- David