Reclaiming HDD space

[calgarychris]

Hi,

Very basic question - if I delete files, I can fairly easily get them back by using snapshots (which I have done in the past). If I want to reclaim the disk space on my hard drive do I need to either delete the snapshots or let them "expire". In my case, I keep hourly snapshots for two weeks, so presumably after two weeks the space will become available?

Or is there a recycle bin somewhere that I need to empty?

Thanks!

 

[achianese]

You've got it right; as long as all the snapshots containing the deleted file are gone, you'll get the space back. You can see the space taken up (uniquely) by snapshots using "zfs list -t snapshot". This is the amount of space that would be reclaimed if that snapshot were deleted.

 

[calgarychris]

Thank you very much for the quick response! Much appreciated!