option to overwrite all but (x) megabytes (for use on running system (for stability))
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the feature to overwrite free disk space is useful, but can cause instability when used on a running system, as other processes will encounter write errors during the period in which the disk is completely full. it would be helpful if there were an option to overwrite all but (x) megabytes, so that there will be room for basic operations on an active system to continue without error.
on the command line, this could look something like:
bleachbit --clean system.free_disk_space --megabytes-to-leave-untouched 100
for a more thorough cleaning, I run bleachbit from live media, however, for regular, automated maintenance, it would be helpful to have this option, as it would allow to safely run bleachbit as a recurring nightly task, without the hassle of having to manually boot to another system.
(copied from launchpad bug number 1649345)
Note:
Have no clue how "Unix-like File-Systems" handle on which physical HDD Block they write in which order data (file parts) but at least Windows File Systems write always first the blocks delete first!
So e.g. it would be theoretically be possible to write/change code in BB, that if one of those File Systems detected (And no SSD, because there it is different!), BB allways write data/files expecting xxx MBs (maybe modifiable in App Settings and/or via CMD Line), then (completely at the end, when HDD is nearly full) deletes xxx MBs of data/files written before again and then write finally the last xxx MBs of data/files! Because as the deleted xxx MBs of deleted (chaff) data are deleted last, on FS like FAT & NTFS the system will overwrite the free space not yet written with (chaff) data first!