Location of Files Left By UNIX mv Command?

[Kelmon]

Hi Guys,

I'm having to move a ******** of image files from DVDs to a UNIX server that I am having to connect to using SAMBA (it's what our IT department setup but I'm sure that NFS would have been more appropriate). Anyway, I'm copying the contents of DVDs to my hard disk before moving them using the UNIX mv command, mostly because this allows me to see when files have been moved successfully and to reclaim disk space. The problem is that I don't seem to get all the disk space back after a 4GB transfer until I reboot my PowerBook which seems to imply the temporary files are created as part of the movement process but aren't deleted until the reboot.

Anyone got any ideas where these temporary files might be stored so that I can delete them myself when I am done since rebooting is something that I shouldn't need to do? Thanks.

 

[Flying Llama]

Is your account using FileVault?

llama

 

[Kelmon]

Nope, I'm just running plain vanilla 10.4.1 at the moment and haven't encrypted the drive through FileVault. It's perhaps also worth noting that running the maintenance scripts (in my case, via MacJanitor) doesn't seem to make much difference with this issue. So far the only action that reclaims the space (and we are talking about Gigabytes of space) is a reboot.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[mkrishnan]

You sound like a pretty advanced user, so I don't mean to be patronizing, but I just want to make sure of this:

How are you determining that there is missing disc space until you reboot? You're not using the indication of how much free space is on your HD that is on the desktop below your HD icon, are you? Because I find in Tiger that this number very rarely updates, especially going back up. Mine is off by almost 2 GB vis-à-vis what a Get Info box says -- which is the correct answer (I know, because the number on the desktop doesn't indicate reclaimed space from deleted files). If you're using du, though, this shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Kelmon]

You sound like a pretty advanced user, so I don't mean to be patronizing, but I just want to make sure of this:

Thanks for the compliment but I'm definitely still a Mac-pleb, although I'm starting to find my feet with UNIX a bit these days.

How are you determining that there is missing disc space until you reboot? You're not using the indication of how much free space is on your HD that is on the desktop below your HD icon, are you?

Yeah, I'm basically looking at the Finder where at the bottom of the window it shows me how many files there are in the current folder and how much capacity I have remaining.

Because I find in Tiger that this number very rarely updates, especially going back up. Mine is off by almost 2 GB vis-à-vis what a Get Info box says -- which is the correct answer (I know, because the number on the desktop doesn't indicate reclaimed space from deleted files). If you're using du, though, this shouldn't be an issue.

That I did not know. I can watch the reported spare capacity go up slowly as files are transfered to the server but had assumed that since the size reported was much different to what I was expecting that OS X was creating temporary data pools or something as the files are read from the disk and transferred to the server and not cleaning up after itself. I'll leave things as the are after the current disk is transferred but at the moment the Finder report is, according to Get Info and Disk Utility, accurate. I'll know more tomorrow morning I think...

 

[mkrishnan]

Check and see if they differ for you, too. That kinda annoys me. The finder report of size is convenient for me, because I often Exposé my desktop and so I see it, but it's annoying that it doesn't stay accurate for me, in exactly the cases where I need to know. I'm curious if that's isolated, or if everyone has the same issue.

Here's an example:

Currently, Finder reports my HD as 6.15GB free, and yet if I click the same icon and do get info, I get 7.88. If I reboot, the number for Finder will increase to match the Get Info window. As I make changes, it will actually update, but it won't stay accurate!

 

[jim.]

You can also use the command utility 'df'. It should tell you the free space on all of your mounted volumes, and be pretty accurate since it queries the file table directly. I don't know if it defaults to displaying the space in bytes though. You may need to do 'df -m' or something. The man page may be more enlightening than I am.

Jim

 

[Kelmon]

Yeah, df -h is a useful little command that I'll be remembering. At this point in time, however, it's not far away from what the Finder is reporting. Since I'll complete another disk transfer tomorrow I think I'll have a golden opportunity to test this application and the Finder to see whether it is simply mis-reporting or if something else is going on.

 

[swiftaw]

Silly Question: How do you get it to put the disk usage below the desktop HD icon?

Check and see if they differ for you, too. That kinda annoys me. The finder report of size is convenient for me, because I often Exposé my desktop and so I see it, but it's annoying that it doesn't stay accurate for me, in exactly the cases where I need to know. I'm curious if that's isolated, or if everyone has the same issue.

Here's an example:

Currently, Finder reports my HD as 6.15GB free, and yet if I click the same icon and do get info, I get 7.88. If I reboot, the number for Finder will increase to match the Get Info window. As I make changes, it will actually update, but it won't stay accurate!

 

[mkrishnan]

Silly Question: How do you get it to put the disk usage below the desktop HD icon?

Click on the desktop, then from the menu bar, View -> Show View Options, and then check the box marked "show item info."