large files

Linux has always been a powerful platform for handling large files, but managing massive datasets or extensive logs requires more than just basic command knowledge. Whether you're a systems administrator, a data scientist, or just a curious power user, mastering the art of processing and managing large files efficiently can save you time and prevent headaches. In this article, we'll explore several tools and techniques that make these tasks more manageable. Before diving into the more complex tools, it's essential to understand a few basic commands in Linux for handling files. Commands like cat, less, head, tail, and grep are staples for file viewing and data extraction.

When it happens that your VPS is eating data by the second and there is disk read/write issues one port of call you are bound to visit is searching and identifying large files on your system. Now, you would have been forgiven for thinking this is a complicated procedure considering some Linux Bash solutions for fairly simple things, but no. Linux Bash wins again! du -sh /path/to/folder/* | sort -rh Here, du is getting the sizes and sort is organising them, -h is telling du to display human-readable format. The output should be something like this: 2.3T /path/to/directory 1.8T /path/to/other It does take a while to organise as it is being done recursively however given 3-5mins and most scenarios will be fine.