<p>Pruning controls the size the <em>blockchain</em> data itself is kept at, by deleting old blocks after validation.</p>
<p>Bitcoin Core however uses many other files to operate. Most of these are small, but some can have significant size:</p>
<ul>
<li>The chainstate (UTXO set database), which tends to be 10+ GB for mainnet these days.</li>
<li>Blockchain indexes (optional) like the transaction index, compact block filters, statistics, ...</li>
<li>The mempool backup on disk (~100 MB, typically).</li>
<li>Wallet files (which may be big if they contain many addresses and/or many transactions).</li>
<li>Various other files, that typically don't exceed a few MB in size.</li>
</ul>
<p>All these other files add on top of the part of the blockchain data that remains after pruning.</p>
<p>Nothing has changed in this regard for many versions of Bitcoin Core, though the UTXO set size has grown over time, making the difference with the configured prune size more apparently, especially when the prune setting is small.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-08T23:05:17.070Z
2024-09-08T23:25:50.043Z
2024-09-08T23:25:50.043Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>My situation</p>
<pre><code>du -sh .bitcoin/
14G .bitcoin/
</code></pre>
<p>I enabled pruning with a limit of 6 GB</p>
<pre><code>bitcoin-qt -prune=6000
</code></pre>
<p>I wait, but it’s still 14G</p>
<pre><code>du -sh .bitcoin/
14G .bitcoin/
</code></pre>
<p>Even after I close, edit <code>.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf</code> to put</p>
<pre><code>prune=6000
</code></pre>
<p>and then restart bitcoin-qt, it still shows 14G occupied space.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<pre><code>System is: Slackware 15.0
Bitcoin version is : 27.1.0
</code></pre>
<p>The size of &quot;ldb&quot; files is various</p>
<pre><code>du -shc .bitcoin/chainstate/*

....

436K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482775.ldb
524K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482776.ldb
956K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482777.ldb
564K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482778.ldb
456K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482779.ldb
908K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482780.ldb
224K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482781.ldb
64K .bitcoin/chainstate/3482782.ldb
60K .bitcoin/chainstate/3482783.ldb
1,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482784.ldb
1,2M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482785.ldb
2,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482786.ldb
2,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482787.ldb
13G total
</code></pre>

<pruning><utxo-set><storage-footprint>
Pruning is not working anymore on Bitcoin Core 27.1.0
elbarna
# Pruning is not working anymore on Bitcoin Core 27.1.0

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-09-08)

My situation
du -sh .bitcoin/
14G .bitcoin/

I enabled pruning with a limit of 6 GB
bitcoin-qt -prune=6000

I wait, but it’s still 14G
du -sh .bitcoin/
14G .bitcoin/

Even after I close, edit .bitcoin/bitcoin.conf to put
prune=6000

and then restart bitcoin-qt, it still shows 14G occupied space.
Why?
System is: Slackware 15.0
Bitcoin version is : 27.1.0

The size of "ldb" files is various
du -shc .bitcoin/chainstate/*

....

436K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482775.ldb
524K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482776.ldb
956K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482777.ldb
564K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482778.ldb
456K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482779.ldb
908K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482780.ldb
224K    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482781.ldb
64K .bitcoin/chainstate/3482782.ldb
60K .bitcoin/chainstate/3482783.ldb
1,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482784.ldb
1,2M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482785.ldb
2,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482786.ldb
2,1M    .bitcoin/chainstate/3482787.ldb
13G total

**Tags:** pruning, utxo-set, storage-footprint


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-09-08. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Pruning controls the size the *blockchain* data itself is kept at, by deleting old blocks after validation.

Bitcoin Core however uses many other files to operate. Most of these are small, but some can have significant size:

* The chainstate (UTXO set database), which tends to be 10+ GB for mainnet these days.
* Blockchain indexes (optional) like the transaction index, compact block filters, statistics, ...
* The mempool backup on disk (~100 MB, typically).
* Wallet files (which may be big if they contain many addresses and/or many transactions).
* Various other files, that typically don't exceed a few MB in size.

All these other files add on top of the part of the blockchain data that remains after pruning.

Nothing has changed in this regard for many versions of Bitcoin Core, though the UTXO set size has grown over time, making the difference with the configured prune size more apparently, especially when the prune setting is small.


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