std::filesystem::resize_file

From cppreference.com
 
 
 
Defined in header <filesystem>
void resize_file( const std::filesystem::path& p,

                  std::uintmax_t new_size );
void resize_file( const std::filesystem::path& p,
                  std::uintmax_t new_size,

                  std::error_code& ec ) noexcept;
(since C++17)

Changes the size of the regular file named by p as if by POSIX truncate: if the file size was previously larger than new_size, the remainder of the file is discarded. If the file was previously smaller than new_size, the file size is increased and the new area appears as if zero-filled.

Parameters

p - path to resize
new_size - size that the file will now have
ec - out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload

Return value

(none)

Exceptions

The overload that does not take a std::error_code& parameter throws filesystem::filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with p as the first path argument and the OS error code as the error code argument. The overload taking a std::error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. Any overload not marked noexcept may throw std::bad_alloc if memory allocation fails.

Notes

On systems that support sparse files, increasing the file size does not increase the space it occupies on the file system: space allocation takes place only when non-zero bytes are written to the file.

Example

demonstrates the effect of creating a sparse file on the free space

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
int main()
{
    fs::path p = fs::temp_directory_path() / "example.bin";
    std::ofstream(p).put('a');
    std::cout << "File size:  " << fs::file_size(p) << '\n'
              << "Free space: " << fs::space(p).free << '\n';
    fs::resize_file(p, 64*1024); // resize to 64 KB
    std::cout << "File size:  " << fs::file_size(p) << '\n'
              << "Free space: " << fs::space(p).free << '\n';
    fs::remove(p);
}

Possible output:

File size:  1
Free space: 31805444096
File size:  65536
Free space: 31805444096

See also

(C++17)
returns the size of a file
(function)
(C++17)
determines available free space on the file system
(function)