Calculating Disk Space Usage

Questions Addressed

• How do I check how much space my network home is using?

Step-by-step guide

Checking space usage of network home directory from a macOS lab machine: 

1. SSH into igppgateway.ucsd.edu or one of the computers listed on the following page: IGPP Lab Machines Database.

   ssh username@igppgateway

2. Issue command to check home directory size: 

   du -hs /home/username

   (Depending on the size of your directory, it may take awhile to calculate the directory size)
   Note: If you wish to have the window display an entry for all files and directories X directories deep enter the following command:

   sudo du -dh X ~username

   (replace X with a value denoting how many directories deep you would like to go and username with your username, i.e. sudo du -hd 1 ~username )
   
   

3. To find calculate Spotlight database size: 

   sudo du -hcd 1 /.Spotlight-V100/

   If Spotlight database requires reindexing, see How to Force Spotlight to Reindex a Drive. 
   
   

4. To find all files larger than 5GB:  

   sudo find / -type f -size +5000000k -exec ls -lh {} \; | awk '{ print $9 ": " $5 }'|sort -n

   Note: that you may get a lot of errors in /private/var/ due to locked files. These can be ignored. 
   
   

If doing this from a macOS host other than lab machine, may also need the following steps: 

1. For macOS 10.13 and lower, skip this step. For macOS 10.14 or higher, manually grant full disk access:

   1. choose Apple menu  > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy tab > Full Disk Access.

   2. Click the lock to make changes and provide credentials, if necessary. 

   3. Click the "+".

   4. Add the /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app.

Checking space usage of network home directory (or any other directories) on Red Hat servers: 

1. Basic check: 

   sudo du -hs

2. Checking space usage with sorting: 

   sudo du -hs ~username/* | sort -n.