Freeing up space

[sparrow]

I just installed panther and it swamped my hard drive. I have hardly any space left, so I am trying to get rid of things that I don't need.

For example, if I never plan on running any os 9 programs can I get rid of the os 9 system folder somehow?

Are there any other files that are unusually big and useless that normally get installed with os 10.3?

Is there any way to search files on the computer by size? For example if I want to see a list of the 10 largest files on my hard drive how would I do that?

 

[zimv20]

here's a start:
% (cd /; du | sort -nr | head)

that'll include directories. whack the | head part if you want to see the whole thing.

to just get the files, that'd probably require use of the find command.

 

[jsw]

Someone recommended this in another post.

Also, do not delete the OS 9 folder unless you never want to run anything in Classic mode. It's not a big folder, anyway.

 

[jsw]

here's a start:
% (cd /; du | sort -nr | head)

that'll include directories. whack the | head part if you want to see the whole thing.

to just get the files, that'd probably require use of the find command.

Slight modification:


cd /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"
sudo du | sort -nr | head


where you can replace "Macintosh HD" with your drive name, if it's different. The 'sudo' part lets you find more stuff than just a regular check. Still, I'd look into using DiskSweeper. This way doesn't list individual files.

Also, if you upgraded to Panther, there might be system archive files you don't need sitting around....

Big, easy way to get rid of excess space: get rid of iDVD.

 

[yellow]

If you prefer a more GUIfied way to look at your machine and file size, you should get OmniDiskSweeper.

 

[zimv20]

Slight modification:


cd /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"
sudo du | sort -nr | head

yes, good changes

 

[zimv20]

okay, it was hard as hell trying to come up w/ one line's worth of unix commands to do this, so i wrote a script instead:

#!/bin/sh
#-----------------------------------------------------------------
#
# %Z%%M% %I% %G%
#
# biggest -
#       find the biggest files on the drive or given directory
#
#       -n how many to find (default is 10)
#       -d start dir (default is /)
#       -r run as root (requires superuser password)
#       -h help message
#
# sxz 7/26/04
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------

PROGRAM=`basename $0`
USAGE="usage: $PROGRAM [-n <number of files to show>] [-d <start directory>] [-r] [-h]"

exit_prog()
{
        exit $1
}

init_prog()
{
        TMPFILE1=/tmp/biggest1_$$
        TMPFILE2=/tmp/biggest2_$$
        TMPFILE3=/tmp/biggest3_$$
}

size_all_files()
{
        cd $STARTDIR
        $SUPERUSER du -a > $TMPFILE1
}

remove_directories()
{
        while read SIZE FILENAME
        do
                # this particular style of cut leaves a
                # space in front of the result...

                FILETYPE=`file "$FILENAME" | cut -f2 -d":"`

                # ...so we take the space into account when
                # looking for 'directory', and only write
                # non-directories to the temp file

                if [ ! "$FILETYPE" = " directory" ]
                then
                        echo $SIZE $FILENAME  >> $TMPFILE2
                fi
        done < $TMPFILE1
}

sort_files()
{
        sort -nr $TMPFILE2 > $TMPFILE3
}

display_results()
{
        head -n $FILECOUNT $TMPFILE3
}

cleanup()
{
        \rm -f $TMPFILE1 $TMPFILE2 $TMPFILE3
}

#
# main routine
#

FILECOUNT=10
STARTDIR="/"
SUPERUSER=""

while getopts rhn:d: ARG
do
        case $ARG in
                n) FILECOUNT="$OPTARG";;
                d) STARTDIR="$OPTARG";;
                r) SUPERUSER="sudo ";;
                [h\?])  echo $USAGE; exit_prog 0;;
        esac
done

shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`

init_prog
size_all_files
remove_directories
sort_files
display_results
cleanup

cut/paste this into a text file and call it 'biggest'. some usage:

to get help:
% biggest -h

to run it from the current directory:
% biggest -d .

to show the 50 biggest files in your home:
% biggest -d ~ -n 50

to show the 10 (default) biggest on your main drive, but as root (access all files, you'll be prompted for a superuser password):
% biggest -r

enjoy!

 

[jsw]

Excellent work, man!

 

[iShater]

okay, it was hard as hell trying to come up w/ one line's worth of unix commands to do this, so i wrote a script instead:
enjoy!

Ok, I am definitely impressed. You made me miss my UNIX admin days!

 

[zimv20]

once upon a time, i got paid to do this stuff. i can't believe how much i've forgotten!

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....when you installed, did you install all the extra printer drivers? That'd be a good place to start cleaning out if you did. Another trick - and one you should use with a bit caution - is to remove all the "localizations" you don't need. Even though you maybe only chose "U.S. English" during your install, many programs still have lots of the other language packs installed. Something like DeLocalizer can help get rid of a lot of it...oh yeah!

 

[iShater]

once upon a time, i got paid to do this stuff. i can't believe how much i've forgotten!

Ditto... except that I got student minimum wage to do it (in school) and I obviously forgot waaaaaaay more than you have!

Actually once of the reasons I switched to the Mac is to get back into it. My Linux box has not been booted in over a year!

Back on topic:
What I realized when I ran out of space is the amount of JUNK I have stored. Downloads I don't need, projects that I started and never finished, etc. We should all start archiving things that we know we won't need on the system that often.