Question:
How to find the largest top 20 files and directories in my Linux ?
Answer :
To find big files and directories you have to use 3 commands is 1 line du sort and head
- du : Estimate file space usage
- sort : Sort lines of text files or given input data
- head : Output the first part of files i.e. to display first 10 largest file
Let give on example .
find largets 20 files or directories . i prefere root acces to execute the commands
#du -a /var | sort -n -r | head -n 20
output
[root@localhost ~]# du -a /etc | sort -n -r | head -20
125520 /etc
66376 /etc/gconf
44932 /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults
43084 /etc/selinux
43052 /etc/selinux/targeted
40772 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules
40740 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules/active
21388 /etc/gconf/schemas
18928 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules/active/base.linked
14716 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules/active/base.pp
4796 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules/active/modules
2972 /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/%gconf-tree.xml
2768 /etc/rc.d
1884 /etc/selinux/targeted/policy
1876 /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.21
1876 /etc/selinux/targeted/modules/active/policy.kern
1836 /etc/gconf/schemas/gnome-terminal.schemas
1328 /etc/gconf/schemas/apps_nautilus_preferences.schemas
1284 /etc/firmware
1276 /etc/firmware/microcode.dat
[root@localhost ~]#
Explain the options :
- -a : Include all files, not just directories (du command)
- -h : Human readable format
- -n : Numeric sort (sort command)
- -r : Reverse the result of comparisons (sort command)
- -n 20 : Display 20 largest file
There is some Other scirpts via Ineternet that doing The same Jobs Like :
find / -type d -size +1G (to fine Directories more then 1 GB)
