File Diet

Today's operating systems typically consist of well over 100,000 files, and more files are quickly added during daily work. Many of these added files are temporary files or logfiles. Over time, you might also accumulate duplicate files, configuration files for deleted programs, and the remnants of broken files. Resourceful programmers have developed tools to remove these unneeded files quickly and efficiently. One cleanup tool that is gaining attention with Linux users is Czkawka [1]. According to the project developers, Czkawka will help you discover and delete:

• Duplicate Files: Finds duplicates based on file name, size, hash, and a hash of just first 1MB of a file
• Empty Folders: Finds empty folders with the help of an advanced algorithm
• Big Files: Finds the biggest files in given location
• Empty Files: Looks for empty files across the drive
• Temporary Files: Finds temporary files
• Similar Images: Finds images that are not exactly the same (different resolution, watermarks)
• Zeroed Files: Finds files that are filled with zeros (usually corrupted)
• Same Music: Searches for music with the same artist, album, etc.
• Invalid Symlinks – Shows symbolic links that point to nonexistent files/directories
• Broken Files: Finds files with an invalid extension or that are corrupted

Czkawka, which gets its name from the Polish word for hiccup, is available in a GUI variant and as a command-line tool. The GUI variant is based on the GTK libraries.

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