Calculating the size of /

[Colin Law]

On 11 September 2012 17:01, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
> On 09/11/2012 02:02 AM, Colin Law wrote:
>>
>> On 11 September 2012 01:20, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 09/10/2012 04:30 PM, PleegWat wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>>
>>>> On 09/10/2012 09:03 PM, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> In another thread I was trying to calculate how much disk space to
>>>>> allocate to / if I did a fresh install and this time setup  a
>>>>> separate /home partition.
>>>>>
>>>>> To get an idea of how much was outside of the home folder on my
>>>>> present install I did:
>>>>>
>>>>> sudo du -shc /  =>  105GB du -shc /home   =>  64GB
>>>>>
>>>>> This led me to believe I had 105GB - 64GB = 41GB that would be in
>>>>> /.
>>>>>
>>>>> Colin suggested I run Disk Usage Analyzer:
>>>>>
>>>>> Total filesystem capacity: 264.7GB(used: 104.5GB avail: 160.2GB
>>>>>
>>>>> /        100%        75.3GB home        84.1%        63.3GB usr
>>>>> 6.7%        5.0GB var        5.8%        4.4GB lib        2.1%
>>>>> 1.6GB opt        1.0%        762.2MB boot        0.3%
>>>>> 194.6MB
>>>>>
>>>>> Everything else was 0.0%
>>>>>
>>>>> So this seems to say that if I had a separate /home on this machine
>>>>> that / would be 12GB not the 41GB calculated above.
>>>>>
>>>>> So what accounts for the difference of 29.2GB between the used of
>>>>> 104.5GB and / of 75.3GB?
>>>>>
>>>>> The 12GB and 29.2GB = the 41GB I originally calculated would be
>>>>> needed for /.  12GB seems to be more in line with what others
>>>>> reported as the size needed for /.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,  Jim
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> The 105 GB is probably correct, since it matches the total filesystem
>>>> usage reported by Disk Usage Analyzer
>>>>
>>>> The list returned by disk usage analyzer is probably off because of
>>>> data in directories your normal login user cannot read. This may
>>>> include data in root's home and trash, certain log directories, and
>>>> other users' data. Given that we're talking about 29GB, another user
>>>> account is the only thing that seems likely.
>>>>
>>>> Another user would have his own directory under /home. Other
>>>> directories containing data not readable by your user may be
>>>> discoverable running disk usage analyzer as root (Alt-F2, 'gksu baobab')
>>>>
>>>> You can also drill down using the --max-depth=1 option to du.
>>>>
>>>> PleegWat
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Your analysis appears to be correct.  I am the only user but the problem
>>> is
>>> in root's home and trash, as below:
>>>
>>> /                               100%                            42.9GB
>>> root                            67.5%                   28.9GB
>>>    .local                          99.8%                   28.9GB
>>>      share                       100.0%                  28.9GB
>>>        trash                       100.0%                          28.9GB
>>>          files                   100.0%                  28.9GB
>>>            backintime              99.9%                   28.9GB
>>>            <snip>
>>> .virtualbox/HardDisks   99.7%                   28.3GB
>>>
>>> I use backintime to do backups to an external usb drive. Back in April it
>>> was getting full so I used backintime to delete some backup sets. Somehow
>>> they seem to have ended up under root.
>>>
>>> I emptied the trash and reran the analysis.  Some of the numbers changed
>>> but
>>> the 28GB is still under root.  I even rebooted but it is still there.
>>> How
>>> can I get rid of that 28GB?
>>
>>
>> Do you mean you still see it in the backintime folder under root?  If
>> so then you can use sudo with the command line to see what is in the
>> folder and remove it if appropriate, or you could run
>> gksu nautilus
>> in a terminal which will give you a nautilus window with root
>> permissions so you can do it graphically.  Be careful obviously and
>> make sure you do not delete something important when running as root.
>>
>> Colin
>>
>
> Yes if I start the Disk Usage Analyzer with gksu.  Here's a screenshot of
> what I see:
>
> http://s12.postimage.org/9bmvoz125/Disk_Usage_Analyzer.png
>
> The one on the left is started from the Applications menu and the one the
> right is started with gksu.  If I start nautilus with gksu in root I see the
> Desktop folder with 0 itmes and gparted_details.htm from 2 years ago.  Free
> space is reported as 151.4GB.
>
> At this point I don't know which one, if any, to believe.

I am not sure what you are confused about.  There is a load of stuff
in the backintime folder under root.  If you don't want it just remove
it.

Colin