The Hidden Truth About File Deletion: Docker, MinIO, and Storage Layers Explained

Question

I assumed for a long time that delete meant gone. Like, actually gone — bytes wiped, storage reclaimed, done.

It doesn’t work that way. And once I understood what actually happens at the storage layer, a bunch of confusing behavior I’d run into with Docker volumes and MinIO suddenly made sense.

A file isn’t one thing
Take report.pdf. It looks like a single object on your disk. It's not.