Mastering UNIX® Shell Scripting: Bash, Bourne, and Korn Shell Scripting for Programmers, System Administrators, and UNIX Gurus, Second Edition

CHAPTER9

Finding Large Files and Files of a Specific Type

Filesystem alert! We all hate to get full-filesystem alerts, especially at quitting time on Friday when the developers are trying to meet a deadline. The usual culprit is one or more large files that were just created, compiled, or loaded. Determining the definition of a large file varies by system environment, but a “large” file can fill up a filesystem quickly, especially in a large database or development environment. To find the files that quickly fill up a filesystem and/or other large files, we need a flexible tool that will search for files larger than a user-defined value. The find command is your friend when a filesystem search is needed.

The find command is one of the most flexible and powerful commands on the system. Before we get started, I want you to have a copy of the find command manual page. You have two options to save a copy of the man page for the find command. The first option uses paper (you know, in a printer), and the second option saves a bunch of trees. To send the manual page for the find command to a specific print queue (in other words, burn up some trees), enter the following command:

man find | lp -d print_queue_name

If you are interested in saving the planet, you can archive the find command manual page by executing the following command:

man find | col -b >> find.txt

The previous command will print the manual page output to the printer defined by print_queue_name, or save the manual page ...