Simple Steps to Find and Remove Large Files on Linux

To efficiently manage disk space on your Linux system, it’s essential to identify and eliminate large files. This guide will walk you through the process using straightforward commands.

Step 1: Check Current Disk Usage

Firstly, use the following command to check the current disk usage:

This will display information about the disk space allocation. Pay attention to the root directory (“/”) and “/home” to ensure they are within reasonable limits.

Step 2: Hunt for Large Files

To trace the largest files on your system, utilize the following command:

Explanation of the command:

• find: Searches for files
• /: Specifies the root directory (you can replace it with “/home” or a more specific path)
• -type f: Specifies to search for files only
• -size +500M: Looks for files larger than 500 Megabytes
• -exec du -h {} \;: Executes the “du” command to display the size of each file found

Step 3: Analyze and Remove Unnecessary Files

Examine the output to identify large files. In this example, files in “/var/spool/abrt/” were found. Verify the purpose of these files before proceeding.

Note: Always double-check before executing the removal command. In this case, we are using Fedora 39.

About the “/var/spool/abrt/” Directory:

This directory in Fedora stores reports generated by the Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT), which automatically detects and reports application crashes.

Subdirectories within “/var/spool/abrt/”:

• ccpp: Stores crash reports for C++ applications.
• coredump: Saves core dumps from crashed processes.
• java: Holds crash reports for Java applications.
• python: Stores crash reports for Python applications.
• reports: Keeps crash reports in HTML format.
• scripts: Contains scripts used by ABRT.

Execute the following command to remove the bug report files from the “/var/spool/abrt/ccpp” directory:

This will help reclaim disk space while ensuring that the removed files are unnecessary bug reports from C++ applications.