Hosting Operations
Risk: safePreview Old Temp Files Before Deleting
A temporary upload directory may contain stale files, but you need evidence before removing anything.
Command
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sortBefore you run this
Risk: safe. Do not pipe this directly to rm until owners, retention rules, and open-file state are understood.
Expected output
Old candidate files with modification date, byte size, and path.
System impact
Nothing changes. The command prints only candidate files older than the threshold.
When to use it
Use before manual cleanup of upload, export, cache, or temp paths where age matters.
When not to use it
Do not pipe this directly to rm until owners, retention rules, and open-file state are understood.
Recovery / rollback
No undo needed because the command only prints candidates.
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.
$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort
2026-06-01 78643200 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/old-export.tar
2026-06-25 23068672 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/recent-export.tar$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort
2026-06-01 78643200 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/old-export.tarView reproducible demo details
This page shows the sanitized shell transcript and the setup steps needed to reproduce the example.
Lab setup steps
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sortfind /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort
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
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
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
Exclude the Current Release from Cleanup
Release cleanup should prove what current points to before listing old directories.
current=$(readlink -f /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/home/deploy/current); find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/home/deploy/releases -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -samefile "$current" -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort
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
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.