Master Linux Disk Space: Quick Commands to Find and Clean Large Files

In Linux, managing disk space is essential; when the disk fills up, you need to locate large files, clean unnecessary ones, and identify space hogs. This article presents efficient methods.

1. Use du to view directory/file sizes

The du command reports disk usage of files and directories, traversing them to calculate sizes. Example to display current directory and subdirectories: du -h . To list only top-level subdirectories sorted by size:

du -h --max-depth=1 . | sort -hr | head -n 10

-h

: human‑readable format (KB, MB, GB). sort -hr: sort by size in reverse order, handling human‑readable units. --max-depth=1: limit output to one level deep.

2. Find large files with find

Use find to search for files exceeding a size threshold, e.g., larger than 100 MB:

find . -type f -size +100M

-type f

: search only regular files. -size +100M: match files larger than 100 MB (use - for smaller, units like M, G, k).

3. List large files with ls

The ls command can sort files by size using -S and display human‑readable sizes with -lh. Example to show the top 10 largest files:

ls -lhS . | head -n 10

-l

: long listing format. -h: human‑readable sizes. -S: sort by size (largest first).

To list the five biggest files:

ls -lhS | head -n 5

4. Visual inspection with ncdu

ncdu

provides an interactive, visual view of disk usage. Install it first:

sudo apt install ncdu   # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install ncdu   # CentOS/RHEL

Run the tool on a directory, e.g., your home folder: sudo ncdu /home/user The interface shows directories with size bars, allowing navigation with Enter, back with Backspace, and deletion with d (use caution).

5. Summary

Disk space management is a common operations task; the commands above— du, find, ls, and ncdu —cover typical use cases for locating and cleaning large files.