3 ms·

> it only found 1GB of savings on a 8.1GB folder. You "only" found that 12% of the space you are using is wasted? Am I reading this right?

warkdarrior 2y ago
The relevant number (missing from above) is the total amount of space on that storage device. If it saves 1GB on a 8TB drive, it's not a big win.
- jy14898 2y ago
  If it saved 8.1GB, by your measure it'd also not be a big win?
  - horsawlarway 2y ago
    This is basically only a win on macOS, and only because Apple charges through the nose for disk space. Ex - On my non-apple machines, 8GB is trivial. I load them up with the astoundingly cheap NVMe drives in the multiple terabyte range (2TB for ~$100, 4TB for ~$250) and I have a cheap NAS. So that "big win" is roughly 40 cents of hardware costs on the direct laptop hardware. Hardly worth the time and effort involved, even if the risk is zero (and I don't trust it to be zero). If it's just "storage" and I don't need it fast (the perfect case for this type of optimization) I throw it on my NAS where it's cheaper still... Ex - it's not 40 cents saved, it's ~10. --- At least for me, 8GB is no longer much of a win. It's a rounding error on the last LLM model I downloaded. And I'd suggest that basically anyone who has the ability to not buy extortionately priced drives soldered onto a mainboard is not really winning much here either. I picked up a quarter off the ground on my walk last night. That's a bigger win.
    - borland 2y ago
      > This is basically only a win on macOS, and only because Apple charges through the nose for disk space You do realize that this software is only available on macOS, and only works because of Apple's APFS filesystem? You're essentially complaining that medicine is only a win for people who are sick.
      - horsawlarway 2y ago
        > and only works because of Apple's APFS filesystem There are lots of other file systems that support this kind of deduplication... Like ZFS that the author of the software explicitly mentions in his write up https://www.truenas.com/docs/references/zfsdeduplication/ https://www.truenas.com/docs/references/zfsdeduplication/ Or Btrfs ex: https://kb.synology.com/en-id/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/volume_btrfs_dedup?version=7 https://kb.synology.com/en-id/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/vo... Or hell, even NTFS: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/overview https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/dat... This is NOT a novel or new feature in filesystems... Basically any CoW file system will do it, and lots of other filesystems have hacks built on top to support this kinds of feature. --- My point is that "people are only sick" because the company is pricing storage outrageously. Not that Apple is the only offender in this space - but man are they the most egregious.
    - eduction 2y ago
      If Apple charges extortionately through the nose for storage hardware, that just makes this tool more valuable.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
  It should be proportional to the total used space, not the space available. The previous commenter said it was a 1 GB savings from ~8 GB of used space; that's equally significant whether it happens on a 10 GB drive or a 10 TB one.
  - horsawlarway 2y ago
    He picked node_modules because it's highly likely to encounter redundant files there. If you read the rest of the comment he only saved another 30% running his entire user home directory through it. So this is not a linear trend based on space used.
    - borland 2y ago
      He "only" saved 30%? That's amazing. I really doubt most people are going to get anywhere near that. When I run it on my home folder (Roughly 500GB of data) I find 124 MB of duplicated files. At this stage I'd like it to tell me what those files are - The dupes are probably dumb ones that I can simply go delete by hand, but I can understand why he'd want people to pay up first, as by simply telling me what the dupes are he's proved the app's value :-)
      - wlesieutre 2y ago
        Another 30% more than the 1GB saved in node modules, for 1.3GB total. Not 30% of total disk space. For reference, from the comment they’re talking about: > I then tried again including my user home folder (731K files, 127K folders, 2755 eligible files) to hopefully catch more savings and I only ended up at 1.3GB of savings (300MB more than just what was in the NodeJS folders.)
      - bhouston 2y ago
        > He "only" saved 30%? That's amazing. I really doubt most people are going to get anywhere near that. You misunderstood my comment. I ran it on my home folder which contains 165GB of data and it found 1.3GB is savings. That isn't significant for me to care about because I currently have 225GB free of my 512GB drive. BTW I highly recommend the free "disk-inventory-x" utility for MacOS space management.
- rconti 2y ago
  Absolutely, 100% backwards. The tool cannot save space from disk space that is not scanned. Your "not a big win" comment assumes that there is no space left to be reclaimed on the rest of the disk. Or that the disk is not empty, or that the rest of the disk can't be reclaimed at an even higher rate.
bhouston 2y ago
I have a 512GB drive in my MacBook Air M3 with 225GB free. Saving 1GB is 0.5% of my total free space, and it is definitely "below my line." It is a neat tool still in concept. When I ran it on my home folder with 165GB of data it only found 1.3GB of savings. This isn't that significant to me and it isn't really worth paying for. BTW I highly recommend the free "disk-inventory-x" utility for MacOS space management.
- timerol 2y ago
  Your original comment did not mention that your home folder was 165 GB, which is extremely relevant here

warkdarrior 2y ago

The relevant number (missing from above) is the total amount of space on that storage device. If it saves 1GB on a 8TB drive, it's not a big win.

jy14898 2y ago
If it saved 8.1GB, by your measure it'd also not be a big win?
- horsawlarway 2y ago
  This is basically only a win on macOS, and only because Apple charges through the nose for disk space. Ex - On my non-apple machines, 8GB is trivial. I load them up with the astoundingly cheap NVMe drives in the multiple terabyte range (2TB for ~$100, 4TB for ~$250) and I have a cheap NAS. So that "big win" is roughly 40 cents of hardware costs on the direct laptop hardware. Hardly worth the time and effort involved, even if the risk is zero (and I don't trust it to be zero). If it's just "storage" and I don't need it fast (the perfect case for this type of optimization) I throw it on my NAS where it's cheaper still... Ex - it's not 40 cents saved, it's ~10. --- At least for me, 8GB is no longer much of a win. It's a rounding error on the last LLM model I downloaded. And I'd suggest that basically anyone who has the ability to not buy extortionately priced drives soldered onto a mainboard is not really winning much here either. I picked up a quarter off the ground on my walk last night. That's a bigger win.
  - borland 2y ago
    > This is basically only a win on macOS, and only because Apple charges through the nose for disk space You do realize that this software is only available on macOS, and only works because of Apple's APFS filesystem? You're essentially complaining that medicine is only a win for people who are sick.
    - horsawlarway 2y ago
      > and only works because of Apple's APFS filesystem There are lots of other file systems that support this kind of deduplication... Like ZFS that the author of the software explicitly mentions in his write up https://www.truenas.com/docs/references/zfsdeduplication/ https://www.truenas.com/docs/references/zfsdeduplication/ Or Btrfs ex: https://kb.synology.com/en-id/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/volume_btrfs_dedup?version=7 https://kb.synology.com/en-id/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/vo... Or hell, even NTFS: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/overview https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/dat... This is NOT a novel or new feature in filesystems... Basically any CoW file system will do it, and lots of other filesystems have hacks built on top to support this kinds of feature. --- My point is that "people are only sick" because the company is pricing storage outrageously. Not that Apple is the only offender in this space - but man are they the most egregious.
  - eduction 2y ago
    If Apple charges extortionately through the nose for storage hardware, that just makes this tool more valuable.
oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
It should be proportional to the total used space, not the space available. The previous commenter said it was a 1 GB savings from ~8 GB of used space; that's equally significant whether it happens on a 10 GB drive or a 10 TB one.
- horsawlarway 2y ago
  He picked node_modules because it's highly likely to encounter redundant files there. If you read the rest of the comment he only saved another 30% running his entire user home directory through it. So this is not a linear trend based on space used.
  - borland 2y ago
    He "only" saved 30%? That's amazing. I really doubt most people are going to get anywhere near that. When I run it on my home folder (Roughly 500GB of data) I find 124 MB of duplicated files. At this stage I'd like it to tell me what those files are - The dupes are probably dumb ones that I can simply go delete by hand, but I can understand why he'd want people to pay up first, as by simply telling me what the dupes are he's proved the app's value :-)
    - wlesieutre 2y ago
      Another 30% more than the 1GB saved in node modules, for 1.3GB total. Not 30% of total disk space. For reference, from the comment they’re talking about: > I then tried again including my user home folder (731K files, 127K folders, 2755 eligible files) to hopefully catch more savings and I only ended up at 1.3GB of savings (300MB more than just what was in the NodeJS folders.)
    - bhouston 2y ago
      > He "only" saved 30%? That's amazing. I really doubt most people are going to get anywhere near that. You misunderstood my comment. I ran it on my home folder which contains 165GB of data and it found 1.3GB is savings. That isn't significant for me to care about because I currently have 225GB free of my 512GB drive. BTW I highly recommend the free "disk-inventory-x" utility for MacOS space management.
rconti 2y ago
Absolutely, 100% backwards. The tool cannot save space from disk space that is not scanned. Your "not a big win" comment assumes that there is no space left to be reclaimed on the rest of the disk. Or that the disk is not empty, or that the rest of the disk can't be reclaimed at an even higher rate.

bhouston 2y ago

I have a 512GB drive in my MacBook Air M3 with 225GB free. Saving 1GB is 0.5% of my total free space, and it is definitely "below my line." It is a neat tool still in concept. When I ran it on my home folder with 165GB of data it only found 1.3GB of savings. This isn't that significant to me and it isn't really worth paying for. BTW I highly recommend the free "disk-inventory-x" utility for MacOS space management.

timerol 2y ago
Your original comment did not mention that your home folder was 165 GB, which is extremely relevant here