Arch Linux

ilMistico

Member

Registered: 2021-11-13

Posts: 34

Problem with free space

Hello everyone. I have a problem with the space on my home partition. I noticed today that I had the user partition almost full, so I started deleting files and uninstalling steam games or games installed via lutris, however I noticed that the file manager (dolphin) and also the partition manager do not show that the space has been freed. Obviously the trash is empty. The filesystem I use is btrfs. Any ideas? Thank you.

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,581

Website

Re: Problem with free space

The file manager is likely relying on statvfs to determine free space. Due to how file systems work, term “free space” is ill-defined and that value was always only a rough estimate. But with complexity of btrfs the effect of this poor definition is greatly exaggerated and what statvfs reports may notably differ from actually available free space. In both directions.

To get a more accurate estimate (yet still an estimate!) use:

sudo btrfs fi usage MOUNTPOINT

Please start giving your threads meaningful titles. Preferably starting with fixing this one.

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Paperclips in avatars? | Sometimes I seem a bit harsh — don’t get offended too easily!

ilMistico

Member

Registered: 2021-11-13

Posts: 34

Re: Problem with free space

The file manager is likely relying on statvfs to determine free space. Due to how file systems work, term “free space” is ill-defined and that value was always only a rough estimate. But with complexity of btrfs the effect of this poor definition is greatly exaggerated and what statvfs reports may notably differ from actually available free space. In both directions.

To get a more accurate estimate (yet still an estimate!) use:

sudo btrfs fi usage MOUNTPOINT

Please start giving your threads meaningful titles. Preferably starting with fixing this one.

I also know that the free space shown is an estimate. The problem is that although I deleted more than a hundred GB of files, the free space shown remained almost unchanged. This is the result of the command.

Overall:
    Device size:                 464.76GiB
    Device allocated:            451.06GiB
    Device unallocated:           13.70GiB
    Device missing:                  0.00B
    Device slack:                    0.00B
    Used:                        426.25GiB
    Free (estimated):             34.44GiB      (min: 27.59GiB)
    Free (statfs, df):            34.44GiB
    Data ratio:                       1.00
    Metadata ratio:                   2.00
    Global reserve:              512.00MiB      (used: 0.00B)
    Multiple profiles:                  no

Data,single: Size:435.00GiB, Used:414.26GiB (95.23%)
   /dev/nvme0n1p2        435.00GiB

Metadata,DUP: Size:8.00GiB, Used:6.00GiB (74.95%)
   /dev/nvme0n1p2         16.00GiB

System,DUP: Size:32.00MiB, Used:64.00KiB (0.20%)
   /dev/nvme0n1p2         64.00MiB

Unallocated:
   /dev/nvme0n1p2         13.70GiB

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,581

Website

Re: Problem with free space

Don’t you have any filesystem snapshots? Or other copies of the files you deleted?

Once again: please name your threads in a meaningful manner.

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Paperclips in avatars? | Sometimes I seem a bit harsh — don’t get offended too easily!