Catching a Local Disk Leak With an Event-Driven Filesystem Watcher

My PC storage started shrinking with no clear cause. Usual disk tools showed growth but not the live source. I wrote DeltaWatch to observe changes as they happen and spotlight “which directories are changing size right now.”

DeltaWatch listens to OS filesystem events (no scanning) and sorts directories by live size delta. Point it at a suspect root, optionally hide noisy subtrees, and—when needed—toggle recent events. In my case, the log folder jumped to the top, confirming the leak; fixing log settings stopped it.

How it works:

  • Event aggregation and per-directory delta tracking
  • Live terminal view (stats, recent events, top directories)
  • CLI and observer setup
screenshot

Finally I detected the culprit: It was VS Code logs ballooning quietly.

I use it from time to time now when something feels off on disk. If it’s useful to you, check it out and adapt it: https://github.com/vtietz/deltawatch.git. Contributions are welcome.

Vincent Tietz

I am a long-time enthusiast of agile software development, combining my roles as a leader, software developer, and organizational coach. I am passionate about fostering creativity and innovation while creating an atmosphere that encourages collaboration and co-creation. My goal is to empower teams to achieve their best through shared vision and agile principles.

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