Hacking Are PKG's compressed?

[viper3344]

Hey all!

So pretty simple here. I have a ps4 4TB external filled. The pkg's sitting on the backup HDD only take up around 3.2TB. I reinstalled everything thinking that I missed installing some PKG's but nope. What sits as PKG's at 3.1TB takes up a full 4TB when installed on the PS4.

I am assuming the pkg's are compressed then? The ps3 I have is pretty on par with the pkg's files VS the installed data.


Also, regarding updates. On PS3, you had to install every single update in order. It is true that the ps4, you ONLY have to install the latest one?

Thanks!

 

[Hayato213]

Yea installed size is slighty bigger than standalone pkg file.

 

[godreborn]

pkgs are compressed, but they should take up the same amount of space when on the hdd. they're identical.

I know fake pkg generator compresses them, but liborbispkg doesn't seem to if you used that.

 

[viper3344]

Yeah can confirm. 3.1TB of usage on storage exfat HDD. 4TB when installed on ps4!

 

[godreborn]

that doesn't make sense unless the ps4 itself is using extra data. the pkg files are identical to the ones you installed. even the md5 is the same, and this has been confirmed by @Leeful .

 

[viper3344]

Well the pkg files get sorted and installed, not just copied over. I am assuming some files just take up more room after being decompressed from the PKG file onto the system. Maybe its a file system thing as well?

All I know is that I have 3.1TB of PKG files. A fresh 4TB Ps4 HDD. I installed the contents of the exfat USB hdd PKG files taking up 3.1TB of space onto the fresh 4TB USB drive. After it was done. Bam. 4TB used. Something is taking up more room for sure.


*********AND!!! Just realized I am in the ps3 thread..... so sorry guys... wrong thread. My PS3 PKG files are pretty much on Par with whats installed, I am talking about PS4.

Any mods available to move this to the PS4 forum please??

 

[godreborn]

all that's really done is the metadata gets sorted. the icons go in the appmeta of user partition and the param.sfo goes into the system_data folder and all that info is added to the app.db. however, the pkg is merely renamed to app.pkg and copied over. nothing changes to the pkg itself beyond the name. this has been confirmed. btw, you're forgetting that 4TB doesn't mean the hdd has 4TBs of space. my 10TB hdds, for example, are only 9.1TBs out of the box. it will be even less than that with the ps4, since some is used for system data.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

btw, those files that are the metadata are part of the image that's not encrypted with a passphrase, so they'll be recoverable even without a license. they're part of the sce_sys folder.

 

[viper3344]

all that's really done is the metadata gets sorted. the icons go in the appmeta of user partition and the param.sfo goes into the system_data folder and all that info is added to the app.db. however, the pkg is merely renamed to app.pkg and copied over. nothing changes to the pkg itself beyond the name. this has been confirmed. btw, you're forgetting that 4TB doesn't mean the hdd has 4TBs of space. my 10TB hdds, for example, are only 9.1TBs out of the box. it will be even less than that with the ps4, since some is used for system data.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

btw, those files that are the metadata are part of the image that's not encrypted with a passphrase, so they'll be recoverable even without a license. they're part of the sce_sys folder.

oh yeah I know. The 4TB detects as 3.78TB on the PS4. It’s so odd. The pkgs take up 3.11TB but after being installed on the ps4 they take up 3.76TB!! That’s where I am confused lol

 

[godreborn]

that's odd to take up that much space. I don't know. pkg files made with fake pkg generator are compressed, but they'll be compressed on the system as well or should be. liborbispkg doesn't seem to compress pkg files though, so they'll be big files on and off the system. maybe @Leeful knows what's going on. you can access the files, if using extended storage, through mnt/ext0. I think there's a pkg tool by lappy that will transfer pkg files to an external hdd, so that you can check them. there are a few files on top of the pkg that are created, but they shouldn't be very big.

 

[Leeful]

The app.pkg stored on the PS4 is 100% identical to the source from where it was installed from. (either a fake pkg or a pkg from an official disk)
It takes up more space on the PS4 because when the pkg is installed there are also files that are extracted from the pkg that are associated with the game title like meta data. trophy data etc.

I was just having a quick look on my PS4 HDD and I noticed I had some large files in my user/download folder.
I dont know if they are a side effect of installing with remote package installer vs USB install and also if they are assosiated with the reported size of an installed game.

I will have to do some tests comparing installing via USB and installing with remote package installer.

 

[godreborn]

it's possible that the external hdd has a certain percentage delegated towards fixing problems like defragmentation. that's how it is on the ps3. the ps3 delegates 8% towards that, because if the hdd is completely filled, it won't be able to fix any problems. same way it works with a pc hdd. the less data there is on the drive, the more likely defragementing will either be slow or fail.

 

[viper3344]

I’m guessing that maybe you are right. It must have some sort of reserve on it. The more u add the more it reserves.