With virtual servers this should not be necessary, as it is easy enough to add some disk space. After all, this should not be a common issue in production envir

With virtual servers this should not be necessary, as it is easy enough to add some disk space. After all, this should not be a common issue in production environments, but more like a once in a decade problem. With physical servers it might be a different story and might be a good idea. I tend to size filesystems to the requirements I have and enlarge them when required (it gives you a periodic reminder to think about what waste you have accumulated). That way, I can still add space even if the filesystem has been filled up. However, if you do it just to have some space when you need it, it probably is overkill and to have an empty buffer file is a lot easier to handle.