From: Neil Hodgson <nhodgson@...>
Date: 2002-01-01T10:03:42+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:29922] Re: How to check free diskspace? (fwd)

Mark Hahn:

> No one has answered the main question, which is:
>
> Why is there no support for a platform-independent df in Ruby (or Java for
> that matter)?
>
> Any good program that writes to a disk should be able to take preventive
> action before a disk fills up.  Waiting for a "disk full" exception is a
> recipe for disaster.

   You still have to deal with disk full exceptions if another process is
consuming  space while your program runs. When using a compressing file
system, the amount of space that will be taken by your files is uncertain.
File systems often use difficult-to-determine amounts of overhead and
blocking.

   Neil