I am doing some long overdue cleaning on my computer and have a couple of questions.
1 - Lost+found - I see multiple gig of space being used by the lost+found hidden directories. One partion has been emptied, but still shows 7.5 g used. How can I (or should I?) “empty” the .lost+found dirs? The trash files have been emptied, but still the mystery files.
2 - .Trash - The trash has been emptied, but it is still holding data. Example of 5.9 g on one.
3 - Multiple trash folders - .trash-0 and .trash-1000 both. Is this an issue, can it be cleaned up?
I have found BleachBit and have started to use it periodically.
Any help, information and correction is welcome. Thank you.
Additional info. Doing some additional digging in the forum I saw a suggestion of using Midnight Commander. I installed it and see much more in the trash files. That takes me back a ways. Reminds me of OS2 before I switched to Linux. I need to relearn, but looks great. In the trash file I look at there are some dating back to 2008. I want to be sure to get advice before I do anything. I’d rather not hose my system by being stupid.
MC is wonderful. I was able to free up approx 15 gig of space over multiple drives by manually clearing out the .trash folders. Any idea as to why it was holding that crud and not eliminating it when the “empty trash” command was given?
Q - Is there a reason for the multiple .trash files?
Q - As opposed to deleting every file manually, can I simply delete the .trash folder? Will the system recreate a fresh folder if it is not there?
idee wrote:
>
> MC is wonderful. I was able to free up approx 15 gig of space over
> multiple drives by manually clearing out the .trash folders. Any idea
> as to why it was holding that crud and not eliminating it when the
> “empty trash” command was given?
>
> Q - Is there a reason for the multiple .trash files?
>
> Q - As opposed to deleting every file manually, can I simply delete the
> .trash folder? Will the system recreate a fresh folder if it is not
> there?
>
> Thank you again for the safety check.
>
>
See if you get anything out of some notes I made a while ago:
Directories used as Thrash in the desktop are used by the desktop. Thus I guess that it depends on the desktop used if they are recreated if unexpectedly not found (in other words, KDE may do different from Gnome). Try it, or recreate a new one yourself.
The lost+found directory is used to save files as good as posible when the file system is in troubles. Not all file system types have them. Thus when you have things there, you should examine them thouroughfully. WWen they are files you still have, check which one is more upto date. When there are files there that you do not have anymore, check if you need them. In any case files inside lost+found denote that there was a problem. Maybe the date of the directory can tell you when. In any case, an fsck of such a file system wouldn’t be a bad thing to do.
The first sentence is true. The second one has no connection with lost+found. This space is simply kept free, not by allocating something to it, but by counting the number of total/used blocks every time new blocks are given out.
MC does show the internals of the .trash, but not lost+found. So MC is not a solution for cleaning lost+found other than being able to delete them.
Doesn’t fsck check run as part of the boot sequence? Is the answer as easy as a reboot? If not what is the safest method? I assume the partition needs to not be mounted before running fsck?
No
I never have any build up in trash because I Delete as in SHIFT Delete, never trash.
Your problem is related to file recovery of accidentally trashed files.
My Son sometimes borrows my pendrive. He sends files on the pendrive to his trash on his Mint box, then gives me the pendrive back… And I have hidden (as in .hidden) copies of the stuff he deletes
Wonderful
I’ve given up trying to teach him to Delete and not trash
lost+found is normaly empty. Yousay, but have yet to prove that there is something in there. MC apperently dos not think there is something in there. But of course you have to look using root, in the command line, using ls -l.
And there is a short fsck during boot. But please, do not go for fsck as long as you do not realy prove there is stuff in lost+found and what it is.
And you should only fsck an unmounted file system. (DDo you check a house for a missing person while still everybody is running in and out?)
And stop mixing these two completely unrelated things, the Trash and lost+found. Talk about one at the time. In fact this should have been two threads in the forums.
On 2013-01-15 18:16, idee wrote:
>
> caf4926;2518627 Wrote:
>> Don’t delete lost+found, they are create when the ext4 partition is
>> created.
>
> I assume the system will clean these then. It’s holding quite a bit of
> space. How often is it cleaned?
That directory is never cleaned, on purpose. You have to do it
personally. Those files are files that got orphaned after a disk crash,
and the subsequent fsck found them and moved them there. You have to see
what they are, one by one, and decide what to do with them, one by one.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))