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"Disk Full" error on a Linux server. How to identify which directory is consuming the most space?

Revati S Misra13701-Aug-2023

"Disk Full" error on a Linux server. How to identify which directory is consuming the most space?

troubleshootingerror linux troubleshooting 
Updated on 02-Aug-2023
Revati S Misra

Revati S Misra

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Aryan Kumar

Aryan Kumar

02-Aug-2023

If you are getting a disk full error on a Linux server, you can use the du command to identify which directory is consuming the most space. The du command stands for "disk usage", and it will show you the amount of space that is being used by each directory.

To use the du command, 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 /var directory, you would run the following command:

du -sh /var

The -sh option tells the du command 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 /var directory, as well as the amount of space that is being used by each subdirectory.

You can use the du command 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 -r option. For example, to recursively scan the /var directory tree, you would run the following command:

du -sh -r /var

The output of the command will show you the total amount of space that is being used by the /var directory 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:

  • Use the du command with the -h option. The -h option will show you the disk usage in a more human-readable format.
  • Use the du command with the -x option. The -x option will exclude directories that are hidden.
  • Use the du command with the -S option. The -S option will summarize the disk usage for all of the directories in a directory tree.
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