$ Linux One Liners
Back to lessons

Hosting Operations

Risk: safe

List Empty Directories as Cleanup Candidates

A cache tree may contain abandoned empty directories and you need to review them before cleanup.

Command

find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -depth -type d -empty -print

Before you run this

Risk: safe. Do not delete empty directories that applications expect to exist unless startup or deploy code recreates them.

Expected output

Paths to empty directories under the selected cache tree.

System impact

Nothing changes. The command prints empty directories without removing them.

Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.

When to use it

Use before pruning empty cache or working directories after a migration, deploy, or failed job.

When not to use it

Do not delete empty directories that applications expect to exist unless startup or deploy code recreates them.

Watch this command run

Example output from a temporary Linux lab

This example uses disposable sample files and sanitized output so you can inspect the shape of the result before touching a real system.

demo@lab:~$

$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -maxdepth 3 -type d -print | sort

/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app
/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app/empty-old
/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app/shards
/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app/shards/a
/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app/shards/b

$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -depth -type d -empty -print

/work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app/empty-old
View reproducible demo details

This page shows the sanitized shell transcript and the setup steps needed to reproduce the example.

Lab setup steps

  1. find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -maxdepth 3 -type d -print | sort
  2. find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -depth -type d -empty -print

next steps

Related commands

Hosting Operations Risk: safe

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
Hosting Operations Risk: safe

Summarize Cache File Ages

Cache cleanup is safer when you know whether files are stale or still active.

find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | sort | uniq -c
Hosting Operations Risk: safe

Preview Old Temp Files Before Deleting

The safe version of cleanup is a candidate list first.

find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort
Hosting Operations Risk: safe

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
Hosting Operations Risk: safe

Review Log Files Before Cleanup

Before truncating logs, prove which log files are large and how old they are.

find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log -xdev -type f -printf '%10s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nr
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.

  • lpic1:103-gnu-unix-commands
  • lpic1:104-filesystems-permissions-fhs
  • lfcs:essential-commands
  • lfcs:operations-deployment
  • lfcs:services-logs
  • lfcs:storage
  • linuxplus:automation-scripting
  • linuxplus:provisional
  • linuxplus:system-management
  • risk:read-only

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.