[desro]

Impressive. I've never dealt with a situation where even `rm` failed, but I have had the displeasure of using and managing modern Macs with 256 GB (or less) of internal storage. I like to keep a "spaceholder" file of around 16GB so when things inevitably fill up and prevent an update or something else, I can nuke the placeholder without having to surgically prune things with `ncdu`

[timenova]

I noticed CockroachDB does the same thing too, on node startup [0].

[0] https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/v23.2/cluster-setup-troub...

[LeifCarrotson]

I find that one of the main benefits of a space holding file is that when it's needed, freeing up that space provides a window of time where you can implement a long-term solution (like buying a new drive with quadruple the storage space of the original for the cost of an hour of that employee/machine's time).

[derekp7]

Had an ex Navy Submariner for a manager many years ago. On some problem systems, he created several such files. He called them ballast files.