4 ms·

On my MacBook, I like to keep a few giant blank files that I can delete in a disk space emergency.

CamJN 3y ago
Since apfs, “large” empty files can also take only the 4K or so for the fs entry on disk, gotta make sure it’s not a sparse file, and doing so is a bit tricky, better to fill it with junk that doesn’t compress well.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
JackFr 3y ago
And my mother sets all her clocks ahead 10 minutes so she's never late.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  It is not an entirely unreasonable idea. If a system runs out of disk space, an unexpectedly large number of operations will fail. Which can make recovery more problematic than you would assume. If you can immediately recover some disk space and have breathing room, it could make the difference in restoring service.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
    Keeping a bit of disk reserved for recovery is extremely common with copy-on-write filesystems like ZFS & BTRFS. Even deletion takes some extra space, so without a reservation it's effectively impossible to delete any files from a full disk.
  - ilyt 3y ago
    Or, you know, have alert on disk space like adults.
    - alanbernstein 3y ago
      This is an alert that must be fixed immediately, with an escape hatch to fix it quickly in case you truly don’t have time to manage your actual files. It is also trivial to set up, and does not require me to figure out how to set up an OS alert, or trust that whatever alert process is running. So it is an essentially fail proof alert that works the same on any OS. What’s a good argument against it?
- PeterStuer 3y ago
  In my experience this makes the problem worse. People either compensate for it, or stop trusting clocks at all. Usually a mix of both of those resulting in even less punctuality.
syndicatedjelly 3y ago
How about a cron job that checks disk usage once per day and prints the top 3 culprits by file type if du exceeds 90%
PeterStuer 3y ago
Can't you set up overprovisioning so the storage controller can do something usefull with it while you don't need the space?

Since apfs, “large” empty files can also take only the 4K or so for the fs entry on disk, gotta make sure it’s not a sparse file, and doing so is a bit tricky, better to fill it with junk that doesn’t compress well.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

JackFr 3y ago

And my mother sets all her clocks ahead 10 minutes so she's never late.

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
It is not an entirely unreasonable idea. If a system runs out of disk space, an unexpectedly large number of operations will fail. Which can make recovery more problematic than you would assume. If you can immediately recover some disk space and have breathing room, it could make the difference in restoring service.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
  Keeping a bit of disk reserved for recovery is extremely common with copy-on-write filesystems like ZFS & BTRFS. Even deletion takes some extra space, so without a reservation it's effectively impossible to delete any files from a full disk.
- ilyt 3y ago
  Or, you know, have alert on disk space like adults.
  - alanbernstein 3y ago
    This is an alert that must be fixed immediately, with an escape hatch to fix it quickly in case you truly don’t have time to manage your actual files. It is also trivial to set up, and does not require me to figure out how to set up an OS alert, or trust that whatever alert process is running. So it is an essentially fail proof alert that works the same on any OS. What’s a good argument against it?
PeterStuer 3y ago
In my experience this makes the problem worse. People either compensate for it, or stop trusting clocks at all. Usually a mix of both of those resulting in even less punctuality.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago

How about a cron job that checks disk usage once per day and prints the top 3 culprits by file type if du exceeds 90%

PeterStuer 3y ago

Can't you set up overprovisioning so the storage controller can do something usefull with it while you don't need the space?