[H-GEN] Out of disk space errors?

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 19 May 2005, David Duffy wrote:

> Related to this, I have a question. I recently ran out of space on my 
> Debian box. Running df indicated heaps of room left but when I used the 
> "file properties" via my Windows box to get the size of all files, it 
> indicated that one directory tree that had thousands of tiny clipart 
> files in it was hogging about 20 times as much disk space than what the 
> files really added up to in raw sizes. I gather that this is to do with 
> cluster sizes and the files being much smaller than them. I deleted that 
> whole directory and it now shows 22% space used and the problem is gone. 
> Is there any way to store heaps of very small files without wasting 
> space? David...

Hi David.  You have at least a couple of options.  Others may chime in 
with more.

1. Make the block size smaller on the filesystem if you can so that less 
   space is wasted per file.  The downside is the kernel must read more 
   blocks to access the file so it is a little slower.  How much of an 
   impact this makes is debateable.

2. Use Reiserfs with the "tail" option on (which happens to be the default 
   last I checked).  This will use space more efficiently for small files 
   again at the expense of speed.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: +1-416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway at opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)