Dolphin - Places - System Root Folder (/) Properties - Calculate processes more than the Root Partition

Brainstorm
1

On a system with multiple disks and multiple partitions, for the System Root Folder (/), Dolphin Properties calculates the file usage of the entire system rather than the file usage only within the System Root Partition.

Are there any thoughts on changing this behaviour of Dolphin to something similar to that of KDiskFree?

BTW, the Free Space indicator at the bottom of the Properties Window indicates only the System Root Partition which is what some people expect for the result displayed in the middle of the Properties Window if the “Calculate” button is pressed.

2

Hi - for reference, there is an existing bug related to the Properties view Size field for /, as at least on some devices, what gets calculated there is getting multiplied by something and showing an inflated amount: 497011 – Dolphin incorrectly calculates the total size of the files under / (the filesystem root directory)

I mentioned it in my comment on that bug, but given what / actually is, I almost wonder if showing a Size or Free Space calculation at that level even makes sense?

As it stands, if you right-click on the main storage device where your root filesystem is mounted, and choose Properties, you get the Properties dialog for / - maybe that’s the key confusing piece? If you have more than one mounted storage device, then adding up all the file sizes in the filesystem hierarchy will include more than the files on that one device, so it could be confusing to associate one specific storage device with / in those cases?

3

@johnandmegh:

Thanks for the pointer to the Bug Report – I’ve added my penny’s worth to it.

I suspect that, it’s a simple (maybe not so simple) issue around the UNIX® directory tree –

  • “/” is the top of the system’s directory tree.
  • The device’s system root partition is mounted at “/” and, the system may have additional partitions mounted in directories below “/” …

You can find the details in the (7) mount_namespaces man page and further information with –

> cat /proc/partitions

‘/proc/mounts’ contains the same information as that displayed by the “mount” CLI command.

Examining “/proc/1/mounts” and “/proc/1/mountinfo” provides information of the systemd process view.

Personally I would prefer if, only the device partition indicated by the associated device mount point in ‘/proc/1/mounts’ would be used by the Dolphin “calculate” function.