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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2026.1

# Save disk space

All files versioned by P4 Server reside in subdirectories beneath the root directory, `P4ROOT`. The database files, and (by default) the checkpoints and journals, also reside in subdirectories beneath the server root.

Use the `p4 diskspace` and `p4 sizes` commands to monitor the amount of disk space currently consumed by your entire installation, or by selected portions of your installation. See Monitor disk space usage.

If you are running low on disk space, consider the following approaches to limit disk space usage.

## Archive or rebalance

If you have large binary files that are no longer accessed frequently, consider creating an archive depot and using the `p4 archive` command to transfer these files to bulk, near-line, or off-line storage. See Reclaim disk space with an archive depot.

If your installation’s database files have grown to more than ten times the size of a checkpoint, you might be able to reduce the size of the files by re-creating them from a checkpoint. See Checkpoints for database tree rebalancing.

## Separate physical disks

Moving checkpoints to separate drives is good practice because:

- it conserves disk space
- old checkpoints are needed when recovering from a hardware failure, and if your checkpoint and journal files reside on the same disk as your depot, a hardware failure could make it impossible to restore your database.

Configure the server to store the journal file on a separate physical disk. Use the `P4JOURNAL` environment variable or `p4d -J` to specify the location of the journal file. To learn about p4d, see P4 Server (p4d) reference.

Keep the journal file short by taking checkpoints on a daily basis.

Compress checkpoints, or use the `-z` option with `p4d` to compress checkpoints on the command line.

### Checkpoint location

Use the `-jc` `prefix` option with the `p4d` command to write the checkpoint to a different disk.

Alternatively, use the default checkpoint files, but back up your checkpoints to a different drive and then delete the copied checkpoints from the root directory.

The `prefix` location can be set using the journalPrefix configurable so `prefix` does not have to be specified when running `p4d -jc` or `p4 admin checkpoint`. Setting `journalPrefix` is generally good practice and is strongly recommended where this server acts as a target server The immediately upstream server for replica servers, edge servers, standby servers, proxies and brokers. See also 'upstream server' and 'central server'. for replicas A P4 Server that automatically maintains a full or partial copy of the central server's metadata and that might contain related file content. The replica copies by using 'p4 pull' or 'p4 journalcopy'. A replica can be used as a backup server for disaster recovery..

### Symbolic links

You can use symbolic links to point to targets whose paths are on other disks. P4 Server supports symbolic links on Linux, macOS, and UNIX, but not on Windows because the Windows implementation is not POSIX-compliant.

#### To create a symbolic link

1. Stop the P4 Server.

2. Run the command that creates the symbolic link.

3. Start the server.

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