Topic: AppData Roaming Bitcoin is huge Directory 3.5 GB; Looks like a memory leak; (Read 5838 times)

You only need to backup the wallet.dat.  If you are using client encryption the private keys are already encrypted.  If you aren't you should encrypt the wallet.dat file.

The rest of the files don't need to be backed up but you may wish to in order to avoid downloading the entire blockchain if you need to restore the client.

ADDR.DAT - contains information on your connected peers
BLK0001.DAT  - contains the raw blockchain
BLKINDEX.DAT - contains the indexes for blockchain
/DATABASE folder - contains logs (can be safely deleted/truncated)

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

It is possible to prune the database so it only contains unspent outputs but that hasn't been implemented in the client.   That will reduce the size of the database by ~80%.  Going forward the size of the database will depend on how many unspent outputs exist.


That is not possible.  Unlike a torrent you must be synced in realtime with the rest of the network.  You can't validate transactons if you are days or weeks behind the rest of the network.   For space limited, bandwidth limited, or mobile applications you should consider a lite client like electrum or a web based wallet like blockchain.info

I run the tree command on the bitcoin directory  AppData Roaming Bitcoin which is huge #  137 items, totaling 3.5 GB

tree
.
|-- ADDR.DAT
|-- BLK0001.DAT   #  1.8 GB
|-- BLKINDEX.DAT  #  609.7 MB
|-- DATABASE    # 124 items, totaling 1.2 GB
|   |-- log.0000000274
|   |-- log.0000000275
|   |-- log.0000000276
|   |-- log.0000000277
|   |-- log.0000000278
|   |-- log.0000000279
|   |-- log.0000000280
|   |-- log.0000000281
|   |-- log.0000000282
|   |-- log.0000000283
|   |-- log.0000000284
|   |-- log.0000000285
|   |-- log.0000000286
|   |-- log.0000000287
|   |-- log.0000000288
|   |-- log.0000000289
|   |-- log.0000000290
|   |-- log.0000000291
|   |-- log.0000000292
|   |-- log.0000000293
|   |-- log.0000000294
|   |-- log.0000000295
|   |-- log.0000000296
|   |-- log.0000000297
|   |-- log.0000000298
|   |-- log.0000000299
|   |-- log.0000000300
|   |-- log.0000000301
|   |-- log.0000000302
|   |-- log.0000000303
|   |-- log.0000000304
|   |-- log.0000000305
|   |-- log.0000000306
|   |-- log.0000000307
|   |-- log.0000000308
|   |-- log.0000000309
|   |-- log.0000000310
|   |-- log.0000000311
|   |-- log.0000000312
|   |-- log.0000000313
|   |-- log.0000000314
|   |-- log.0000000315
|   |-- log.0000000316
|   |-- log.0000000317
|   |-- log.0000000318
|   |-- log.0000000319
|   |-- log.0000000320
|   |-- log.0000000321
|   |-- log.0000000322
|   |-- log.0000000323
|   |-- log.0000000324
|   |-- log.0000000325
|   |-- log.0000000326
|   |-- log.0000000327
|   |-- log.0000000328
|   |-- log.0000000329
|   |-- log.0000000330
|   |-- log.0000000331
|   |-- log.0000000332
|   |-- log.0000000333
|   |-- log.0000000334
|   |-- log.0000000335
|   |-- log.0000000336
|   |-- log.0000000337
|   |-- log.0000000338
|   |-- log.0000000339
|   |-- log.0000000340
|   |-- log.0000000341
|   |-- log.0000000342
|   |-- log.0000000343
|   |-- log.0000000344
|   |-- log.0000000345
|   |-- log.0000000346
|   |-- log.0000000347
|   |-- log.0000000348
|   |-- log.0000000349
|   |-- log.0000000350
|   |-- log.0000000351
|   |-- log.0000000352
|   |-- log.0000000353
|   |-- log.0000000354
|   |-- log.0000000355
|   |-- log.0000000356
|   |-- log.0000000357
|   |-- log.0000000358
|   |-- log.0000000359
|   |-- log.0000000360
|   |-- log.0000000361
|   |-- log.0000000362
|   |-- log.0000000363
|   |-- log.0000000364
|   |-- log.0000000365
|   |-- log.0000000366
|   |-- log.0000000367
|   |-- log.0000000368
|   |-- log.0000000369
|   |-- log.0000000370
|   |-- log.0000000371
|   |-- log.0000000372
|   |-- log.0000000373
|   |-- log.0000000374
|   |-- log.0000000375
|   |-- log.0000000376
|   |-- log.0000000377
|   |-- log.0000000378
|   |-- log.0000000379
|   |-- log.0000000380
|   |-- log.0000000381
|   |-- log.0000000382
|   |-- log.0000000383
|   |-- log.0000000384
|   |-- log.0000000385
|   |-- log.0000000386
|   |-- log.0000000387
|   |-- log.0000000388
|   |-- log.0000000389
|   |-- log.0000000390
|   |-- log.0000000391
|   |-- log.0000000392
|   |-- log.0000000393
|   |-- log.0000000394
|   |-- log.0000000395
|   |-- log.0000000396
|   `-- log.0000000397
|-- DB.LOG
|-- DEBUG.LOG
|-- WALLET.DAT
|-- __DB.001
|-- __DB.002
|-- __DB.003
|-- __DB.004
|-- __DB.005
`-- __DB.006

1 directory, 136 files  #  137 items, totaling 3.5 GB


===

Please, what do I need to backup and encrypt so save account details? Except:
WALLET.DAT 

to save bandwidth? if not backed up and restored it will be downloaded again?
BLK0001.DAT   
BLKINDEX.DAT   

Now finally which files are needed if i wish to only use the software as a client, and not as a bitcoin miner?
If possible?  I also like to se a way to say limit disk space to maximum x GB and limit the downloads and upload rates to  1kbps /  2 kbps. If bitcoin does not scale well on mobile or old computers with limited hard disk space and limited bandwidth I face a problem. In contrast bittorrent clients gives me the option to limit the download an upload bandwidth.

The huge hard disk requirements for a running system looks on first inspection as a memory leak.

Where does all this data come from? From the net, then it is a bandwidth problem.

After a short discussion on the irc channel i got the impression it is not a memory leak. I can safely delete the log files:  log.0000000nnn  # 124 items, totalling 1.2 GB but no more. Everything else is needed?

For what?  suppose I will not mine anything, and suppose I need to limit the hard disk requirement to less than 1 GB? what Can I do?

Please which files can safely be deleted, and which files are needed for a software transfer to a different system, say from Windows to a Mac or a BSD? I need help to reduce the hard disk requirement. So far I have not noticed a bandwidth problem, but if this is transferred over the wire, there  is a need to limit the kbps for bitcoin.  If the file size is required and I cannot resize the partition easily,  there must be a file system with compression which helps for the reducing the largest files. Otherwise I would need Tera Bytes of hard disk space and ZFS file system.

NTFS or Fat 32 is not a solution for this.


Sincerely yours,

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