sparseimage
A sparseimage is a type of disk image format used on macOS that represents a virtual disk whose allocated storage grows as data is written. It is stored as a single file on the host filesystem, commonly with the .sparseimage extension, and can be created and managed with the hdiutil utility or Disk Utility. When created, the image has a specified maximum size, but only the data actually written into the image consumes physical space on disk. As content is added, new blocks are allocated up to the maximum size, allowing substantial space savings when the image is sparsely populated.
Mounting and use are similar to other disk images: the image appears as a mounted volume and
Sparseimage is distinct from sparsebundle, another macOS disk image format. A sparseimage is a single file,
Common uses include creating compact backups, portable containers for transporting data, and staging areas for large