[SOLVED] root partition 97% full.

stf92 · 12-07-2018, 12:28 PM

Hi: I have the root partition 97% full. But when I installed the O.S. it took much less space. So I want to delete/transfer some files. The question is what files? I would use du to see the directory that is taking a significant part of the disk. But in what way? I cannot begin

Code:

du -hs /

Actually I would begin by determining which files take more than 1 GB. But how do I do this?

I could do

Code:

ls -lR

and have a script that tells me when the file takes more than 1GB. Of course the script would have to scan the output of ls. Is there a simple way to achieve this?

I discovered this:

Code:

root@darkstar/home/bill/.local/share# du -h -d1 .
72K	./xorg
168K	./okular
12K	./autojump
16K	./kxmlgui5
4.5G	./Trash
4.5G	.

What is this Trash directory?

lazydog · 12-07-2018, 01:00 PM

Trash is where things you delete get moved to like in windows.

You could use 'df' to see how much space is used and available on your mount points:

Code:

/ $ \df -h
Filesystem                           Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/centos_us19netdt01-root   50G  3.8G   47G   8% /
devtmpfs                             3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs                                3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                                3.8G   49M  3.7G   2% /run
tmpfs                                3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1                           1014M  228M  787M  23% /boot
/dev/mapper/centos_us19netdt01-home  407G  207M  407G   1% /home
tmpfs                                3.8G  5.5M  3.8G   1% /opt/omd/sites/eurofins/tmp
tmpfs                                765M     0  765M   0% /run/user/1000

Once you know which mount point is using the most space you can move to that directory and figure out what is using so much space.

You will notice that my root partition is separate from the other partitions in the Mounted On column. You claim that root is almost full, 97%, but you are looking at your home directory above. If home and root are mounted separately then clearing the Trash folder is not going to help you with your root being full.

Go back and use the df command on the root level to see what is being used where.

stf92 · 12-07-2018, 01:14 PM

I have everything (the OS) mounted on a single point. In Trash I found a lot of movies, which take a lot of space. I proceeded to deleted Trash and now df gives 64% full instead of 97%. This leaves me with

Code:

root@darkstar/# du -h -d1
7.0M	./etc
12K	./srv
du: cannot access './proc/3745/task/3745/fd/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/3745/task/3745/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/3745/fd/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access './proc/3745/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory
0	./proc
54M	./boot
792K	./run
4.0K	./opt
3.1G	./usr
3.9G	./almacen
1.5G	./home
4.0K	./juan
4.0K	./mnt
4.0K	./debian
0	./sys
2.1G	./root
12K	./tmp
0	./dev
16K	./lost+found
4.0K	./pasaje
2.2G	./var
13G	.
root@darkstar/#

Why 2.2G in /var? /almacen is a separate partition.

lazydog · 12-07-2018, 01:30 PM

Can you run df from root?

stf92 · 12-07-2018, 02:04 PM

Code:

root@darkstar~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
dev             952M     0  952M   0% /dev
run             958M  796K  957M   1% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p1   15G  8.8G  5.0G  65% /
tmpfs           958M   65M  893M   7% /dev/shm
tmpfs           958M     0  958M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           958M  8.1M  950M   1% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p2   14G  3.9G  8.9G  31% /almacen
tmpfs           192M     0  192M   0% /run/user/0
tmpfs           192M  4.0K  192M   1% /run/user/1000
root@darkstar~#

lazydog · 12-07-2018, 11:54 PM

Looks like you found more fluff to delete on the root directory. If you don't mind telling what distro is this that placed everything on the root?

stf92 · 12-08-2018, 06:14 AM

It is Arch Linux. Please notice I said the root partition is nearly full, not the root directory. Actually the problem can be stated in more general terms: partition part_foo is nearly full and I want to delete unnecesary files lying in that partition. Asuming part_foo is mounted in directory /dir_foo, how to discover files under /dir_foo that occupy more than 1 GB? This won't be answered by df, but either du or ls look like ideal tools for the job. And how to automate the procedure.

A question: Do you call / the root directory?

Arch does not have an installer. You yourself do all things an installer normally does. The first thing you do after given a prompt by the iso image is to run wifi-menu in order to get connected to the web. Then

Code:

    # timedatectl set-ntp true
    # mount /dev/mmcblk01 /mnt
    # pacstrap /mnt base
    # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
    
    # arch-chroot /mnt

where /dev/mmcblk01 is the root partition, followed by other stuff. However in the Arch circles they speak about the installer, a thing I don't understand.

I know who is the one that placed those audio and video files in .../Trash. It is Transmission, a program to manipulate torrents. Maybe I choose 'Remove torrent and delete files'. And judging by the result he puts everything in .local/.../Trash.

One procedure to follow when df says / is nearly full if to erase all hidden files in the home directory and run df again to see the result, it seems.

A further question: I did 'rm -r ~/.local/share/Trash'. Will the Trash directory get regenerated again? I mean, perhaps I should have done 'rm -r ~/.local/share/Trash/*'.

colorpurple21859 · 12-08-2018, 10:05 AM

What is the output of parted -l

stf92 · 12-08-2018, 10:15 AM

Code:

root@darkstar~# parted -l
Model: MMC S10032 (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 30.6GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  16.0GB  16.0GB  primary  ext2
 2      16.0GB  30.6GB  14.6GB  primary  ext2


Error: /dev/mmcblk0boot0: unrecognised disk label
Warning: Error fsyncing/closing /dev/mmcblk0boot0: Input/output error
Retry/Ignore? i

This is quite new to me! cfdisk /dev/mmcblk0 does not complain at all.

ehartman · 12-08-2018, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

Why 2.2G in /var?

/var is where all of the logfiles (and i.e. printer temporary files) go to.
Look again at /var/log and /var/spool, those are the most likely ones.
A command like

Code:

du -sm /var/*|sort -n

as root (there are a lot of dirs that are non-visible to normal users) will give you an idea of where the most diskspace is used.

stf92 · 12-08-2018, 11:29 AM

And what if I straightforwardly delete /var/log and /var/spool?

lazydog · 12-08-2018, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

It is Arch Linux. Please notice I said the root partition is nearly full, not the root directory.

Yes, sorry.

Quote:

Asuming part_foo is mounted in directory /dir_foo, how to discover files under /dir_foo that occupy more than 1 GB? This won't be answered by df, but either du or ls look like ideal tools for the job. And how to automate the procedure.

Via scripting.

Quote:

A question: Do you call / the root directory?

No '/' is root but '/root' is the root directory.

Quote:

Arch does not have an installer. You yourself do all things an installer normally does. The first thing you do after given a prompt by the iso image is to run wifi-menu in order to get connected to the web. Then

Code:

    # timedatectl set-ntp true
    # mount /dev/mmcblk01 /mnt
    # pacstrap /mnt base
    # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
    
    # arch-chroot /mnt

where /dev/mmcblk01 is the root partition, followed by other stuff.

Seems a bit backwards. I'd think the first thing any installation would have you do is partition the drive. It is here where you should make a root partition and at least a home partition.

Quote:

However in the Arch circles they speak about the installer, a thing I don't understand.

I know who is the one that placed those audio and video files in .../Trash. It is Transmission, a program to manipulate torrents. Maybe I choose 'Remove torrent and delete files'. And judging by the result he puts everything in .local/.../Trash.

One procedure to follow when df says / is nearly full if to erase all hidden files in the home directory and run df again to see the result, it seems.

A further question: I did 'rm -r ~/.local/share/Trash'. Will the Trash directory get regenerated again? I mean, perhaps I should have done 'rm -r ~/.local/share/Trash/*'.

I'd go with the second one to delete the files and leave the directory.

stf92 · 12-09-2018, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazydog

No '/' is root but '/root' is the root directory.

So we have three roots. The tree vertex, the root directory and a user called root. Thanks lazydog for your kind replies.

ehartman · 12-09-2018, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

So we have three roots. The tree vertex, the root directory and a user called root. Thanks lazydog for your kind replies.

To get the terminology right:

Code:

/ is the root _directory_ of the whole tree of a Linux system
/root is the home directory of the user "root"
and the one you were concerned about is the partition that has
been mounted on the / dir (and shown by df as /)
/dev/sda1        11160720    7945872   3101460  72% /