getting back space from snap
my root partition has been skirting full for months. I found a 1.4 gb snap for kde support. kf6-core24 supposedly deleteing a snap warns me if there are dependencies. actually I deleted a couple of programs i installed that did not like and never use first, but it took the delete command without complaint. going to the snapd directory shows the file is not there. i emptied trash (did not see any large files in trash). that graphical display of used space shows it gone from \var\lib\snapd\snaps no change for a while, but now my root partition is 98% full per df -k this was 20 minutes ago, i think it takes a while to reclaim space from deleted files, but this long? from system monitor, there is no task doing disk writes except intermittantly, but maybe cleanup isn't included (that would be a MAJOR deficiency if so). I'm guessing somebody will tell me I have to reboot, but why did none of the instructions on the internet say that? and since I was allowed to delete all the snaps that should imply none were in use, so why would a reboot be needed? Carey
On 8/25/25 11:08 AM, CAREY SCHUG via Talk wrote:
I'm guessing somebody will tell me I have to reboot, but why did none of the instructions on the internet say that? and since I was allowed to delete all the snaps that should imply none were in use, so why would a reboot be needed?
A common thing that can bite you is the unix feature that if a file is open and you delete the file it will not be removed from the filesystem until the program with the file open closes it or exits (closing all the open files). This usually gets people trying to remove log files but not restarting the service that has the logfile open. If you know the file or directory you could likely use lsof to track down the program that has the open file. -- Alvin Starr || land: (905)513-7688 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||
ok, part of my problem is not understancing how much linux lies to me. after a reboot, it does show 95% full. but doing the math on the blocks used/total, it is technically under 90% full, and what it tells me is "available" is 5%, so the difference is being withheld from me. unless those numbers are innacurate or there is some basic issue I don't understand. I don't know enough of the internal workings to know if that is reasonable, or a holdover from when disks were smaller. if it is more than reasonable, the problem is that I could get to ignore the "disk almost full" warnings even when it really is almost full. Carey
On 08/25/2025 10:22 AM CDT Alvin Starr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
On 8/25/25 11:08 AM, CAREY SCHUG via Talk wrote:
I'm guessing somebody will tell me I have to reboot, but why did none of the instructions on the internet say that? and since I was allowed to delete all the snaps that should imply none were in use, so why would a reboot be needed?
A common thing that can bite you is the unix feature that if a file is open and you delete the file it will not be removed from the filesystem until the program with the file open closes it or exits (closing all the open files).
This usually gets people trying to remove log files but not restarting the service that has the logfile open.
If you know the file or directory you could likely use lsof to track down the program that has the open file.
-- Alvin Starr || land: (905)513-7688 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net mailto:alvin@netvel.net ||
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On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM CAREY SCHUG via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
ok, part of my problem is not understancing how much linux lies to me.
after a reboot, it does show 95% full.
but doing the math on the blocks used/total,
it is technically under 90% full, and what it tells me is "available" is 5%, so the difference is being withheld from me. unless those numbers are innacurate or there is some basic issue I don't understand.
I don't know enough of the internal workings to know if that is reasonable, or a holdover from when disks were smaller.
if it is more than reasonable, the problem is that I could get to ignore the "disk almost full" warnings even when it really is almost full.
By default, an ext filesystem will reserve 5% of its capacity. So you are seeing 5% free + 5% reserved, comes out to the 10% you are looking for. [snip]
ok, for those that understand the internals, is that reasonable? Could the system really need that much space in a hurry? or maybe is 500mb enough even if the disk is larger? or some more complex formula, as in 100mb + 1% but no more than 5%? Carey
On 08/25/2025 1:22 PM CDT Nick Accad <naccad@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM CAREY SCHUG via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org mailto:talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
ok, part of my problem is not understancing how much linux lies to me.
after a reboot, it does show 95% full.
but doing the math on the blocks used/total,
it is technically under 90% full, and what it tells me is "available" is 5%, so the difference is being withheld from me. unless those numbers are innacurate or there is some basic issue I don't understand.
I don't know enough of the internal workings to know if that is reasonable, or a holdover from when disks were smaller.
if it is more than reasonable, the problem is that I could get to ignore the "disk almost full" warnings even when it really is almost full.
By default, an ext filesystem will reserve 5% of its capacity.
So you are seeing 5% free + 5% reserved, comes out to the 10% you are looking for.
[snip]
Sorry for top posting The 5% is just the default. I find it very wasteful on large capacity filesystems. The good news is that it is adjustable, depending n what filesystem you are using, it can be even done live. # tunefs -m2 /dev/sdx This will set the reserve to 2%. Other filesystems will have different methods, and you are not limited to percentage, you can use -r to set the number of reserved blocks. -Nick On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 14:33 CAREY SCHUG <sqrfolkdnc@comcast.net> wrote:
ok, for those that understand the internals, is that reasonable?
Could the system really need that much space in a hurry?
or maybe is 500mb enough even if the disk is larger? or some more complex formula, as in 100mb + 1% but no more than 5%?
Carey
On 08/25/2025 1:22 PM CDT Nick Accad <naccad@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM CAREY SCHUG via Talk < talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
ok, part of my problem is not understancing how much linux lies to me.
after a reboot, it does show 95% full.
but doing the math on the blocks used/total,
it is technically under 90% full, and what it tells me is "available" is 5%, so the difference is being withheld from me. unless those numbers are innacurate or there is some basic issue I don't understand.
I don't know enough of the internal workings to know if that is reasonable, or a holdover from when disks were smaller.
if it is more than reasonable, the problem is that I could get to ignore the "disk almost full" warnings even when it really is almost full.
By default, an ext filesystem will reserve 5% of its capacity.
So you are seeing 5% free + 5% reserved, comes out to the 10% you are looking for.
[snip]
participants (3)
-
Alvin Starr -
CAREY SCHUG -
Nick Accad