Re: [tlug] Something is eating my disk space

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

Keith Bawden <isdj@example.com> wrote:

> find / -mount -type f -size +100M -ls

> find / -mount -size +100M -exec du -h {} \;

When run as a peon user, it will likely generate many errors, 
when find tries to access directories that it does not have 
permission to access, so one would likely need to redirect stderr to /dev/null. 

If Dave is using shared hosting (which he is likely not), 
"find / ..." might generate many false positives also. 

Godwin Stewart <godwin.stewart@example.com> wrote:

> $ find / -type f -uid your_uid -exec ls -l '{}' ';' | ...

Godwin solves the false positive problem, but leaves the 
errors. 

If the box is the FC1 box that Dave previously mentioned having 
complete control over, then the sysadmins will not complain about 
such attempts. However, on tightly administered machines that are 
used for shared hosting, one might get nastygrams or worse from the 
sysadmins for trying to access things that one is not allowed to access. 

One would likely do multiple finds on particular directories 
to avoid attempting prohibited access. 

Since Dave likely has control of the whole computer, 
he could avoid the errors by carefully executing find as root 
with sudo. 

> $ ... ls -l ... | sort -rn

Sorting by permissions is boring. 
Of course Godwin leaves it as an exercise for the student Dave 
to figure out how to tell sort which field to sort. 

Dave M G <martin@example.com> wrote:

> But, despite my attempts to hunt around both the web 
> interface for the control panel ..., 
> and I can't see anything big enough to be a problem.

Most web interfaces would thwart even experts. 

> But, despite my attempts to hunt around ... within directories 
> [by using] the command line, 
> and I can't see anything big enough to be a problem.

The command line is the way to look. 
You just don't know how to yet. 
Keep playing with that. 

Do learn the find, du and sort commands. 
Godwin left Dave a nice exercise to do with sort.