Hosting Operations
Read-only, can be slowFind the Largest CI Artifacts
CI upload, cache, or packaging steps are slow or failing, and oversized artifacts may be the cause.
Command
find artifacts -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | head -10Before you run this
System impact: Read-only. Can create load on large logs, directories, filesystems, or process tables.
When not to use it: Do not delete artifacts from this output alone; confirm which files are required.
Expected output
The ten largest artifact files with byte sizes and paths.
System impact
Read-only, can be slow. Nothing changes. The shell prints the largest artifact files.
Scope this to the smallest useful path or service on busy systems.
Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.
When to use it
Use when artifact upload, cache restore, package creation, or disk usage looks suspicious.
When not to use it
Do not delete artifacts from this output alone; confirm which files are required.
Explanation-only example
Illustrated output, not a live lab run
This example is intentionally illustrative. It shows the command shape without killing real processes or changing your machine.
$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && du -sh artifacts/*
12K artifacts/build
12K artifacts/coverage
20K artifacts/dist
12K artifacts/test$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && find artifacts -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | head -10
831488 artifacts/dist/assets/vendor.js
250880 artifacts/dist/assets/main.js
450 artifacts/test/junit.xml
338 artifacts/test/pytest.log
139 artifacts/build/webpack.log
137 artifacts/build/app-build.log
131 artifacts/coverage/coverage-summary.txt
87 artifacts/coverage/coverage-summary.json
77 artifacts/dist/index.html$ cd /work/ci-artifacts && find artifacts -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | awk 'NR<=5 {printf "%.1f KB %s\n", $1/1024, $2}'
812.0 KB artifacts/dist/assets/vendor.js
245.0 KB artifacts/dist/assets/main.js
0.4 KB artifacts/test/junit.xml
0.3 KB artifacts/test/pytest.log
0.1 KB artifacts/build/webpack.logView commands shown
These are the commands shown in the sanitized transcript.
Commands shown
cd /lab/ci-artifacts && du -sh artifacts/*cd /lab/ci-artifacts && find artifacts -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | head -10cd /lab/ci-artifacts && find artifacts -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | awk 'NR<=5 {printf "%.1f KB %s\n", $1/1024, $2}'
next steps
Related commands
Rank Old Cleanup Candidates by Size
The oldest file is not always the file that buys back meaningful space.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nr | head
List Largest Files in a Backup
Large backup files are where storage surprises usually start.
find backup -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -nr | head
Find the Newest Build Logs First
The failing file is usually one of the newest artifacts.
find artifacts logs -type f \( -name '*.log' -o -name '*.txt' \) -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %p\n' | sort -r | head
Find Directories Burning Inodes
Inode cleanup starts by finding the directory with too many files.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -type f -printf '%h\n' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
List Newest Build Artifacts
Confirm what your pipeline actually produced before you deploy it.
find artifacts/ -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM %10s %p\n' | sort | tail -20
Study mapping
Use this as independent command practice: read the notes, predict the output, then compare it with the example before using a real shell.
Useful for
- LPIC-1 style command-line practice
- LFCS style performance tasks
- Linux+ style troubleshooting review
Independent study support only. No affiliation, endorsement, exam dumps, or real exam questions.