Checking the Size of Files

You can check the size of files and sort them by using the ls command. You can find files that exceed a size limit by using the find command. For more information, see the ls(1) and find(1) man pages.

Note - If you run out of space in the /var directory, do not symbolically link the /var directory to a directory on a file system with more disk space. Doing so, even as a temporary measure, might cause problems for certain daemon processes and utilities.

How to Display the Size of Files

Change to the directory where the files you want to check are located.
Display the size of the files.
```
$ ls [-lh] [-s]
```
-l

Displays a list of files and directories in long format, showing the sizes in bytes. (See the example that follows.)

-h

Scales file sizes and directory sizes into Kbytes, Mbytes, Gbytes, or Tbytes when the file or directory size is larger than 1024 bytes. This option also modifies the output displayed by the -o, -n, -@, and -g options to display file or directory sizes in the new format. For more information, see thels(1) man page.

-s

Displays a list of the files and directories, showing the sizes in blocks.

Example 13-4 Displaying the Size of Files

The following example shows that the lastlog and messages files are larger than the other files in the /var/adm directory.

$ cd /var/adm
$ ls -lh
total 682
drwxrwxr-x 9 root sys 15 Jan 4 03:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 41 root sys 42 Jan 3 19:03 ..
drwxrwxr-x 5 adm adm 5 Jan 3 17:26 acct
-rw------- 1 uucp bin 0 Jan 3 17:34 aculog
drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 exacct
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 3.2M Jan 4 06:47 lastlog
drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 4 03:10 messages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 55K Jan 3 19:10 messages.0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 pool
drwxrwxr-x 2 adm sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sa
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sm.bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 streams
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 3 17:36 utmpx -> \
 ../../system/volatile/utmpx
-rw-r--r-- 1 adm adm 10K Jan 4 06:47 wtmpx

The following example shows that the lpsched.1 file uses two blocks.

$ cd /var/lp/logs
$ ls -s
total 2 0 lpsched 2 lpsched.1

How to Find Large Files

Change to the directory that you want to search.
Display the size of files in blocks from largest to smallest.
- If the characters or columns for the files are different, use the following command to sort a list of files by block size, from largest to smallest.
```
$ ls -l | sort +4rn | more
```
  Note that this command sorts files in a list by the character that is in the fourth field, starting from the left.
- If the characters or columns for the files are the same, use the following command to sort a list of files by block size, from largest to smallest.
```
$ ls -s | sort -nr | more
```
  Note that this command sorts files in a list, starting with the left most character.

Example 13-5 Finding Large Files (Sorting by the Fifth Field's Character)

$ cd /var/adm
$ ls -l | sort +4rn | more
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 3353420 Jan 7 06:45 lastlog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3221924 Jan 7 12:15 messages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56045 Jan 3 19:10 messages.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 adm adm 12648 Jan 7 06:45 wtmpx
drwxr-xr-x 41 root sys 42 Jan 3 19:03 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 3 17:36 utmpx -> ../../system/volatile/utmpx
drwxrwxr-x 9 root sys 15 Jan 4 03:10 .
drwxrwxr-x 5 adm adm 5 Jan 3 17:26 acct
drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 exacct
drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 pool
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sm.bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 streams
drwxrwxr-x 2 adm sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sa
-rw------- 1 uucp bin 0 Jan 3 17:34 aculog

Example 13-6 Finding Large Files (Sorting by the Left Most Character)

In the following example, the lastlog and messages files are the largest files in the /var/adm directory.

$ cd /var/adm
$ ls -s | sort -nr | more
 6409 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3221924 Jan 7 12:15 messages
 517 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 3353420 Jan 7 06:45 lastlog
 111 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56045 Jan 3 19:10 messages.0
 26 -rw-r--r-- 1 adm adm 12648 Jan 7 06:45 wtmpx
 5 drwxr-xr-x 41 root sys 42 Jan 3 19:03 ..
 3 drwxrwxr-x 9 root sys 15 Jan 4 03:10 .
 3 drwxrwxr-x 5 adm adm 5 Jan 3 17:26 acct
 3 drwxrwxr-x 2 adm sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sa
 3 drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 streams
 3 drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 sm.bin
 3 drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 2 Jan 3 17:26 pool
 3 drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 log
 3 drwxr-xr-x 2 adm adm 2 Jan 3 17:26 exacct
 1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 3 17:36 utmpx -> ../../system/volatile/utmpx
 1 -rw------- 1 uucp bin 0 Jan 3 17:34 aculog
total 7094

How to Find Files That Exceed a Specified Size Limit

To locate and display the names of files that exceed a specified size, use the find command.
```
$ find directory -size +nnn 
```
directory

Identifies the directory that you want to search.

-size +nnn

Is a number of 512-byte blocks. Files that exceed this size are listed.

Example 13-7 Finding Files That Exceed a Specified Size Limit

The following example shows how to find files larger than 400 blocks in the current working directory. The -print option displays the output of the find command.

$ find . -size +400 -print
./Howto/howto.doc
./Howto/howto.doc.backup
./Howto/howtotest.doc
./Routine/routineBackupconcepts.doc
./Routine/routineIntro.doc
./Routine/routineTroublefsck.doc
./.record
./Mail/pagination
./Config/configPrintadmin.doc
./Config/configPrintsetup.doc
./Config/configMailappx.doc
./Config/configMailconcepts.doc
./snapshot.rs

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