How to find large files and folders when trouble shooting low disk space issues

File space is low

The following command will list files/folders that are at least 1 GB in size in ascending order:

 

 sudo time du -ah / | uniq | grep "^[0-9]*[G]" | sort -g

 

The output will be similar to this:

 

user@server1:~> sudo time du -ah / | uniq | grep "^[0-9]*[G]" | sort -g       

du: cannot access '/proc/24299/task/24299/fd/3': No such file or directory

du: cannot access '/proc/24299/task/24299/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory

du: cannot access '/proc/24299/fd/4': No such file or directory

du: cannot access '/proc/24299/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory

0.34user 0.66system 0:03.93elapsed 25%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 2840maxresident)k

0inputs+0outputs (0major+1164minor)pagefaults 0swaps

13G     /home/.Trash-0

13G     /home/.Trash-0/files

18G     /home

29G     /

user@server1:~>

 

If you need to refine your search you can list files in MB by changing the grep section as shown

 

 sudo time du -ah / | uniq | grep "^[0-9]*[M]" | sort -g

 

This will return far more hits:

...

764M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/server/linux/x86_64/groupwise-server-18.2.1-135758.x86_64.rpm

765M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/server

765M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/server/linux

765M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/server/linux/x86_64

803M    /usr/lib64

837M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-133880-49_full_linux_multi/client/win32

837M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-134327-66_full_linux_multi/client/win32

837M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-134721-85_full_linux_multi/client/win32

838M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-133880-49_full_linux_multi/client

838M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-134327-66_full_linux_multi/client

838M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.1.2-134721-85_full_linux_multi/client

839M    /root/Downloads/gw18.1.2-136123-171_full_linux_multi/client

839M    /root/Downloads/gw18.1.2-136123-171_full_linux_multi/client/win32

899M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.2.0-135307-2034_full_linux_multi/client/win32

900M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.2.0-135307-2034_full_linux_multi/client

905M    /opt/novell/groupwise/admin/webapps/gwadmin-console

908M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.2.0-135169-2013_full_linux_multi/client

908M    /home/.Trash-0/files/gw18.2.0-135169-2013_full_linux_multi/client/win32

914M    /opt/novell/groupwise/agents

915M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/client/win32

916M    /home/gwcode/gw18.2.1-135758-2101_full_linux_multi/client

938M    /opt/novell/groupwise/admin/webapps

user@server1:~>