Hosting Operations
Risk: safeReview Log Files Before Cleanup
Log files are suspected during disk pressure and you need a compact review list before changing retention or truncating anything.
Command
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log -xdev -type f -printf '%10s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nrBefore you run this
Risk: safe. Do not treat log cleanup as a substitute for fixing missing rotation or runaway logging.
Expected output
A size-sorted list of log files with modification dates and paths.
System impact
Nothing changes. The command prints log file sizes, dates, and paths for review.
Recovery / rollback: no state is changed.
When to use it
Use before truncating, compressing, rotating, or moving logs during disk incidents.
When not to use it
Do not treat log cleanup as a substitute for fixing missing rotation or runaway logging.
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/log -xdev -type f -printf '%10s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nr
44040192 2026-06-26 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log/nginx/access.log
18874368 2026-06-26 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log/nginx/error.log.1$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log -xdev -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | awk '{total += $1} END {printf "log_total_mb=%.1f\n", total/1024/1024}'
log_total_mb=60.0View 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/log -xdev -type f -printf '%10s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nrfind /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/log -xdev -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | awk '{total += $1} END {printf "log_total_mb=%.1f\n", total/1024/1024}'
next steps
Related commands
Rank Old Cleanup Candidates by Size
The oldest file is not always the file that buys back meaningful space.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%s %TY-%Tm-%Td %p\n' | sort -nr | head
Preview Old Temp Files Before Deleting
The safe version of cleanup is a candidate list first.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort
Summarize Cache File Ages
Cache cleanup is safer when you know whether files are stale or still active.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | sort | uniq -c
Find Directories Burning Inodes
Inode cleanup starts by finding the directory with too many files.
find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/cache/app -xdev -type f -printf '%h\n' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
Exclude the Current Release from Cleanup
Release cleanup should prove what current points to before listing old directories.
current=$(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
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.