Unix/Ubuntu – How to Find the Biggest Directories

Ubuntuunix

Is there a way in Unix to see the biggest directories on disk ?

I need to know why I'm almost done with the space on the server, and I dunno where most of the space is used..

thanks

Best Answer

Try: du --max-depth=7 /* | sort -n - it won't just tell you directories, and there will be duplicates, but it will list everything 7 levels deep and sort them by size order.

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Linux – Can I Nohup/Screen an Already-Started Process?

If you're using Bash, you can run disown -h job

disown
disown [-ar] [-h] [jobspec ...]
Without options, each jobspec is removed from the table of active jobs. If the -h option is given, the job is not removed from the table, but is marked so that SIGHUP is not sent to the job if the shell receives a SIGHUP. If jobspec is not present, and neither the -a nor -r option is supplied, the current job is used. If no jobspec is supplied, the -a option means to remove or mark all jobs; the -r option without a jobspec argument restricts operation to running jobs.

Directories on Unix and Unix-like Systems – Understanding Their Meaning

For more data on the layout of Linux file-systems, look at the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (now at version 2.3, with the beta 3.0 version deployed on most recent distros). It does explain some of where the names came from:

/bin - Binaries.
/boot - Files required for booting.
/dev - Device files.
/etc - Et cetera. The name is inherited from the earliest Unixes, which is when it became the spot to put config-files.
/home - Where home directories are kept.
/lib - Where code libraries are kept.
/media - A more modern directory, but where removable media gets mounted.
/mnt - Where temporary file-systems are mounted.
/opt - Where optional add-on software is installed. This is discrete from /usr/local/ for reasons I'll get to later.
/run - Where runtime variable data is kept.
/sbin - Where super-binaries are stored. These usually only work with root.
/srv - Stands for "serve". This directory is intended for static files that are served out. /srv/http would be for static websites, /srv/ftp for an FTP server.
/tmp - Where temporary files may be stored.
/usr - Another directory inherited from the Unixes of old, it stands for "UNIX System Resources". It does not stand for "user" (see the Debian Wiki). This directory should be sharable between hosts, and can be NFS mounted to multiple hosts safely. It can be mounted read-only safely.
/var - Another directory inherited from the Unixes of old, it stands for "variable". This is where system data that varies may be stored. Such things as spool and cache directories may be located here. If a program needs to write to the local file-system and isn't serving that data to someone directly, it'll go here.

/opt vs /usr/local

The rule of thumb I've seen is best described as:

Use /usr/local for things that would normally go into /usr, or are overriding things that are already in /usr. Use /opt for things that install all in one directory, or are otherwise special.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – Can I Nohup/Screen an Already-Started Process?

Directories on Unix and Unix-like Systems – Understanding Their Meaning

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