"Disk Full" error on a Linux server. How to identify which directory is consuming the most space?
"Disk Full" error on a Linux server. How to identify which directory is consuming the most space?
Ask by Revati S Misra
Updated 02 Aug 2023
If you are getting a disk full error on a Linux server, you can use the
ducommand to identify which directory is consuming the most space. Theducommand stands for "disk usage", and it will show you the amount of space that is being used by each directory.To use the
ducommand, you will need to specify the directory that you want to get the disk usage for. For example, to get the disk usage for the/vardirectory, you would run the following command:The
-shoption tells theducommand to show the disk usage in human-readable format. The output of the command will show you the total amount of space that is being used by the/vardirectory, as well as the amount of space that is being used by each subdirectory.You can use the
ducommand to recursively scan a directory tree to find the directories that are consuming the most space. To do this, you will need to use the-roption. For example, to recursively scan the/vardirectory tree, you would run the following command:The output of the command will show you the total amount of space that is being used by the
/vardirectory tree, as well as the amount of space that is being used by each subdirectory.Once you have identified the directory that is consuming the most space, you can take steps to reduce the amount of space that it is using. For example, you can delete unnecessary files or move files to a different directory.
Here are some additional tips for identifying which directory is consuming the most space on a Linux server:
ducommand with the-hoption. The-hoption will show you the disk usage in a more human-readable format.ducommand with the-xoption. The-xoption will exclude directories that are hidden.ducommand with the-Soption. The-Soption will summarize the disk usage for all of the directories in a directory tree.