Duplicate files

[Steven Vollom]

Eberhard Roloff wrote:
> Eberhard Roloff wrote:
>   
>> Matthew Flaschen wrote:
>>     
>>> Eberhard Roloff wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Steven Vollom wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I don't know what to keep or discard
>>>>         
>>>>> from what I read.  Could you possible give me a clue.  I wouldn't even 
>>>>> know what to Google.
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>> My sincere recommendation is to STOP here.
>>>>
>>>> As Matthew recommended, install filelight and/or kdirstat.
>>>>         
>>> Not me, Clay!  I would never recommend a graphical utility for file
>>> manipulation (big ;)).
>>>
>>> Matt Flaschen
>>>
>>>       
>> Sorry! I bear the blame..
>>
>> I would!
>>
>> Especially for users that have no clue how to handle the textual output 
>> flood of the commandline tool. So CL might be better, but when it will 
>> not help?
>>
>> Eberhard
>>
>>
>>     
> Hi,
>
> just to add and clarify:
>
> fdupes and tools like kdirstat actually do serve different purposes.
>
> fdupes finds duplicates of files, while kdirstat and the like will show, 
> where your harddisk space is gone.
>
> Steven, if you want to look for duplicate files graphically, you can 
> install kleansweep which does a bit of what fdupes does.
>
> Apparently, I was implicitly assuming that Stevens main problem is not 
> finding duplicate files but finding what consumes his disk space.
> And this was not his question!
>
> Please accept my apologies.
>
> Eberhard
>
>
>   
Dear Eberhard,

Nice to hear from you.  Mainly, until I understand more of this, I am 
interested in not running out of disk space in the boot partition.  I 
started with 50gb and only have 6 right now, and basically I have only 
been working on learning the linux system and operation.

Movies are my diversion, so I don't ever want any of them in the boot 
partition.  I don't want to save unnecessary duplicates and don't know 
how they form or how many you actually need to keep a system operating 
properly.  For instance, if you have a single copy of something you need 
again, is it only necessary to keep that copy in one place on the 
computer; or let's say that I have five copies at various points on the 
drive.  Can I remove 4 and still function properly, or are duplicates 
sometimes needed in other locations?  I have wondered about this for 
years, yet don't really know how to ask the question, nor until now knew 
anyone who might know.

When I ran fdupes, I had 215,000 entries where they were apparently 
broken or unreadable or whatever; it wasn't until that entire list had 
been gone through that readable and workable data showed up.  There was 
a lot of that too, but I don't yet know how to deal with the readable 
data.  But all those other entries, the 215,000, shouldn't they be 
removed; won't that free up space and make things more efficient?

And after reading your exchange, what of the 44gb of used space can I 
safely remove, or should I just increase the primary boot drive 
partition; and how large should I make it.  Until I can become able to 
properly use my computer, I just want to use it as a basic learning tool 
of Linux and watch movies to help me sleep.  When I am tired, unless I 
can get my mind diverted to something requiring less thought, I don't 
sleep at all, I just continue to think about the things I don't yet 
know.  I would never get to sleep without the movies.  And, I rarely 
watch one through in a single viewing.  They are my sleeping pill.  All 
the stuff I really care about in the way of stored information can be 
contained in 1gb of space.

I hope I am able to make myself understood.  Thanks for any help you 
give me.

Steven