GNU bug report logs - #45266
"guix gc" needs free disk space to function

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel <at> gmail.com>
To: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix <at> gnu.org>
Subject: "guix gc" needs free disk space to function
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:36:54 -0600

It would be better if guix gc could run on a disk that was completely
full, as right now it cannot be used to free space on a full disk.

Message #8 received at 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45266: "guix gc" needs free disk space to function
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:37:29 +0100

Hi,

Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel <at> gmail.com> skribis:

> It would be better if guix gc could run on a disk that was completely
> full, as right now it cannot be used to free space on a full disk.

The daemon reserves a bit of extra space before starting operation (see
‘reserve-space?’ in (guix store)), which should be enough to gracefully
handle situations where builds are filling the disk.

However, there can also be non-Guix processes filling the disk, to the
point where it’s completely full, and at that point sqlite3 (which the
daemon uses) may be unable to operate.

I’m afraid there’s little we can do in this case.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.

Message #11 received at 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel <at> gmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45266: "guix gc" needs free disk space to function
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:05:04 -0600

>The daemon reserves a bit of extra space before starting operation (see
‘reserve-space?’ in (guix store)), which should be enough to gracefully
handle situations where builds are filling the disk.

>However, there can also be non-Guix processes filling the disk, to the
point where it’s completely full, and at that point sqlite3 (which the
daemon uses) may be unable to operate.

I didn't experience this. Guix pull filled the disk, which prevented
the gc from working. It's possible some other process was writing in
the background, but I had built an image which was almost completely
devoid of programs and services.

>I’m afraid there’s little we can do in this case.

>Thoughts?

Copy the database into tmpfs temporarily?

On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 8:37 AM Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel <at> gmail.com> skribis:
>
> > It would be better if guix gc could run on a disk that was completely
> > full, as right now it cannot be used to free space on a full disk.
>
> The daemon reserves a bit of extra space before starting operation (see
> ‘reserve-space?’ in (guix store)), which should be enough to gracefully
> handle situations where builds are filling the disk.
>
> However, there can also be non-Guix processes filling the disk, to the
> point where it’s completely full, and at that point sqlite3 (which the
> daemon uses) may be unable to operate.
>
> I’m afraid there’s little we can do in this case.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Ludo’.

Message #18 received at 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Vincent Legoll <vincent.legoll <at> gmail.com>
To: 45266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: "guix gc" needs free disk space to function
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2021 05:56:00 +0100

Hello,

for the guix daemon sqlite problem, could we
preallocate some space in the database also ?

c.f.: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/827010/sqlite-pre-allocating-database-size

-- 
Vincent Legoll

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