How to Free Up Disk Space on a Linux Server (Quick Log Cleanup)

There’s a Linux server that hasn’t been properly managed. I’ve put together, in the order I use them, the commands for deleting that server’s log files.

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1. Check disk usage

df

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2. Check usage per subdirectory

du -h --max-depth=1 # Check directory usage only
du -sh *            # Check usage for both directories and files

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3. Check files

Search for and sort log files older than 30 days

find ./ -name '*.log.*' -mtime +29 | sort

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4. Delete files

Delete log files older than 30 days

find ./ -name '*.log.*' -mtime +29 -delete

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5. Compress files, then delete

Compress log files older than 2 days, then delete the originals

find ./ -name '*.log.*' -mtime +1 -exec sh -c "tar cjvf {}.bz2 {}; rm -f {};" \;