[mythtv-users] rebalance deleted recordings

[Simon Hobson]

Brian J. Murrell <brian at interlinx.bc.ca> wrote:

> Every now and then the amount of space that deleted recordings consume
> on my various storage drives gets way out of balance.  You might ask
> "who cares?".  But it is an important metric.
> 
> The reason it's so important is that when your drives are full (which
> they should always be since deleted recording expiration happens on
> demand

Ah, IMO that is you problem. If a recording is deleted, why keep it around ? Keep it for a few days (allows for reversal of accidental deletions), but if you deleted it then presumably you no longer want it - if you think you might want it then mark it as watched and don't delete it.

It's like people I've come across that never empty the Wastebasket (aka Trash or Recycle Bin) - because they are actually using it as a storage folder !



However, there is part of your issue which is correct - if a drive is almost full and has no deleted recordings on it then you'll have the problem. I aim to keep more free space than the minimum I've told Myth to keep - and I only rebalance if one drive is getting quite close. Most of the time I find it's not an issue.
I find it hard to believe that if you weren't keeping a load of deleted recordings around, that the recordings wouldn't balance themselves better over time - meaning you'd need to manually rebalance once after clearing some of the old deleted recordings.