Disk & Filesystem Management (Du/Df/Lsblk/Fstrim)

Get the real story behind your storage bloat

🧩 The Challenge

You’ve definitely been there: df says the disk is full, but du can’t find the culprit because some process is holding a deleted log file hostage. I’ve spent an entire afternoon chasing ghosts like this only to realize the space was actually just hidden under an open file handle.

💡 The Fix

Use lsof to hunt down files that are marked as deleted but are still eating up your block space. It clears the mystery up instantly by showing you exactly which process needs a restart to release those bytes.

lsof +L1

⚙️ Why It Works

Passing the +L1 flag tells lsof to filter for files that have a link count of less than one, which is exactly how those invisible space-wasters behave once you rm them.

🚀 Pro-Tip: Pipe it into awk to just grab the PIDs if you’re ready to just kill the process and reclaim the space immediately.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 10/25/2026