Update taking a lot of hdd space

Issues & Assistance Newbies
21

@dalto
Will try! Is there a topic to try things out?

Did an update again the other day and it took about 5GB of space. Versions to keep is still set to zero and there is no cache to be cleared. I don't think that this is normal. The snapshot took about 75MB (unshared). Any ideas?

22

If the user has set timeshift to include the home directory in auto snapshots this could result in massive space usage at each update. Large media files swapped constantly in/out of $HOME/Videos could cause this result.

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23

The home directory is not included in timeshift and it’s almost empty as the machine is mainly used for surfing the web.

24

Certainly older snapshots could be taking up lots of space but it shouldn’t cause a massive jump in disk usage immediately after an update. Even in a situation where you have a high rate of data change, a btrfs snapshot from a few minutes ago should take up very little space.

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25

I fully agree, (in this scenario). What I was alluding to was more likely to happen if the user only performed updates days apart and in the interim had downloaded GB’s of movies to their home directory.

There is definitely something very strange going on here. Have you checked your logs for crash dumps?

II would suggest installing Qdirstat from the AUR. QDirStat is a graphical application to show how your disk space usage is distributed. This function can also be easily done from the terminal. However, I think using a GUI for this is more intuitive for those unfamiliar with the terminal. Perhaps Qdirstat can aid in identifying where your used space is accumulating after an update. Knowing exactly where the data growth is occurring may help in identifying the cause.

Good luck

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26

You mean filelight, shirley :slight_smile: Filelight - KDE Applications ( see if someone can pick up the reference )

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27

I am not fond of the filelight application and prefer qdirstat if using a GUI. The actual program/method the OP uses is rather irrelevant. The point is, the user needs to identify exactly where this drive space growth is coming from at each update.

OT:

Your reference is to the late Leslie Neilson in the Airplane series of movies from many decades ago I believe. A good Canadian comedian whose brother was also a very prominent long serving Member of Parliament in Canada back in the day.

And BTW, don’t call me Shirley!!! :wink:

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