We can use fdupes to finds any duplicate files in a given set of directories.
-r : recurse, include files residing in subdirectories -s : symlinks, follow symlinked directories -H : hardlinks, normally, hen two or more files point to the same disk area they are treated as non-duplicates; this option will change this behavior -n : noempty, exclude zero-length files from consideration -f : omitfirst, omit the first file in each set of matches -1 : sameline, list each set of matches on a single line -S : size, show size of duplicate files -q : quiet, hide progress indicator -d : delete, prompt user for files to preserve, deleting all others -v : version, display fdupes version -h : help, displays help
1. To find duplicate files in a directory
# fdupes /<directory>
2. To find duplicate files in subdirectories
# fdupes -r /<directory>
3. To determine the size of the duplicate files
# fdupes -S /<directory>
4. To delete the duplicates file
# fdupes -d /<file-name-in-the-duplicate-directory>
5. To find the fdupes version
# fdupes -v
6. To find the fdupes help command
# fdupes -h
Note
• If fdupes returns with an error message such as fdupes: error invoking md5sum it means the program has been compiled to use an external program to calculate MD5 signatures (otherwise, fdupes uses interal routines for this purpose), and an error has occurred while attempting to execute it. If this is the case, the specified program should be properly installed prior to running fdupes.
• When using -d or –delete, care should be taken to insure against accidental data loss.
