US Patent 10592469 Converting files between thinly and thickly provisioned states

A technique for managing storage space in a data storage system implements data objects in respective files. In response to an instruction to convert a set of such files from thin to thick or from thick to thin, the data storage system checks whether it has enough available storage space to accommodate the set of files if conversion were to proceed. If so, conversion is performed, and each of the set of files is converted from thin to thick or from thick to thin, in accordance with the instruction.