Keep your home directory clean
==============================

The du command
--------------

Very simple and consize tool to query informations on your home directory. Most useful options are presented, for more check manual page (man du):

.. code-block:: bash

    $ du -h                # Shows data in human readable units
    $ du -s                # Shows a summary: The data of the curent directory as a whole
    $ du -d NUM            # Summarizes data in subdirectories down to a maximum depth.
    $ du -a                # Also show files in current directory
    $ du --exclude PATTERN # It excludes the files whose name matches the pattern


Examples:

.. code-block:: bash

    $ du -ahd 2              # Show files and directories up to a depth of 2 in human readable units
    $ du -a --exclude=*.xyz  # Show all files and directories except .xyz files
    $ du -ah | grep G        # dirty hack: show (almost) only files larger than 1 GiB


The find command
----------------

Advanced one-line commands to query and change files and directories. It offers many so-called test options and can do actions based on the files and directories it finds.

.. code-block:: bash

    $ find <directory> <tests> [<actions>]


Actions are optional, if none are given, it prints the list of files. Common usage to find files in directory 'dir' larger than 100 MiB:

.. code-block:: bash

    $ find <dir> -size +100M


A few useful tests:

.. code-block:: bash

    -name PATTERN          # Allows us to find files whose name matches the PATTERN
    -size +nM              # Shows the files larger than n MiB. Use G for GiB
    -mtime +/-n            # find files modified more or less than n*24 hours ago

A few useful actions:

.. code-block:: bash

    -exec <command> {} +   # Execute command on list of files
    -exec <command> {} \;  # Execute command on each file in list individually
    -delete                # CAREFUL, DATA LOSS! Deletes the files found by the find command

Example: Compress all OUTCAR files in directory ~/calc using xz:

.. code-block:: bash

    $ find ~/calc -name OUTCAR -exec xz {} +