what are free files?

Can someone tell me what "free files" are?

df -e .

-e
Print only the number of free files.

thanks,

aha

EAch filesystem has a limit as to how many individual files can exist on that filesystem.
Example: the limit is 10000, There are now 6000 files on the filesystem. That means "free files" = 4000.

Technically they are talking about unused inodes.