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Sleep Image???
- Thread starter Peruvian
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thats the Safe Sleep file for when your computer goes to sleep and RAM contents is dumped into a file. Hibernate mode. I believe thats the answer. I would say don't delete it.
http://andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-your-mac/
fyi imo you shouldn't be deleting anything in folders that have been hidden by os x.
http://andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-your-mac/
fyi imo you shouldn't be deleting anything in folders that have been hidden by os x.
More words of wisdom. Yes, you can delete it it a reboot doesn't do it for you.
It should be automatically removed when a Mac comes out of sleep, but sometimes this doesn't happen, and the detritus left over wastes disk space. The startup scripts that run on boot clean up /var/vm/ and it may go bye-bye then, but if not.. feel free to delete it without worry.
It should be automatically removed when a Mac comes out of sleep, but sometimes this doesn't happen, and the detritus left over wastes disk space. The startup scripts that run on boot clean up /var/vm/ and it may go bye-bye then, but if not.. feel free to delete it without worry.
Perhaps I should note that I've deleted it multiple times off my MBP with no ill effects. My Mac works fine and still sleeps happily. 
A swap file doesn't (rarely, maybe) reaches 2048MB in size.
And yes, it's going to be created again, but it won't be THAT one. It'll have a new one created. So, now you've got a 2GB (in my case, because I have 2GB of RAM) wasted on my disk because I've had a wake-from-sleep failure that caused me to reboot the machine.
Where is "safe sleep"?
Well, I was partially wrong. The swapfile gets recreated, but it's a zero length file.
More info:
I slept the computer (closed lid) between removal and subsequent checking. The sleepfile was recreated, but has a zero length. On subsequent lid closures, the file grew no larger.
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Its a power management setting
Disable
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
Enable
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3
Always Use
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1
I'm pretty sure it is 3, if its 1, then anytime you put your machine to sleep, it will hibernate - whereas the default is hibernation mode is only hit in a low power situation.
First off, that sleepimage file is for your own sake. If your computer is asleep and the battery dies or is removed that saves the state that your computer is in, so that when a power source is returned you retain your state, and no data is lost. Why take down a safety net? for two measly gigabytes?
Secondly, you're all playing around inside of the /private directory which has lots of files that YOU THE USER should not play around with, but I imagine you are all running around in Admin accounts, which is a major bad practice. It's a matter of principal that unless you know EXACTLY what you are DOING that you should run as a standard user right up until you absoluetly have to have admin privledges.
Secondly, you're all playing around inside of the /private directory which has lots of files that YOU THE USER should not play around with, but I imagine you are all running around in Admin accounts, which is a major bad practice. It's a matter of principal that unless you know EXACTLY what you are DOING that you should run as a standard user right up until you absoluetly have to have admin privledges.
Ok , i feel you on the advice which is appreciated, but just for my knowledge, why when i delete does it come back, still at 2gig. i know its only a small amount but i need the space at the moment, and surely it shouldnt be 2gig but something smaller...
You do so at your own risk, as well as against standard UNIX doctrine. The common wisdom for security escalation is that you only use it when you specifically need it. When you hit something that you need to do as admin, you authenticate to elevate your privilidges, do what you need to do (in a quick and precise manner, don't dilly dally), then de-escalate to back to standard user, to remove any risks of hurting anything by accident.
That is why Root is disabled on OS X, and SUDO is implemented. It only allows you to do a task or two as ROOT, rather than waltzing around with the ability to destroy everything if you trip up.
Principle of Least Privilege
This is what makes UNIX secure.
It's 2 gigabytes because that is your ram size.
The sleep image is a file on the hard drive that the system RAM is written to, in order to prevent against loss of contents in the case of a power outage. If it happens, the memory in the RAM is lost, and needs to be restored from the disk, to return to the state when the computer was put to sleep.
You don't know what you are doing, clearly. Leave it alone.
I don't care, really. My feeling is that if you run as admin for your day to day, you're not exercising careful judgement.
I work for a large university as a system administrator and application developer. Security is my bread and butter.