How to delete duplicate files in Linux
Question: Two of my directories on my server have some the same files. How can I easily delete any duplicates while preserving the unique files?
Answer: There exists a Linux tool for just about everything, and this is no exception. You need a tool called fdupes, which searches the path you give it for duplicate files and uses several comparison techniques (sizes, MD5 signatures, byte-by-byte comparison) to find and eliminate duplicates.
First install fdupes. In RHEL/Fedora/CentOS, use the rpmforge repository enter:
# yum install fdupes
To find duplicates in the /etc directory, you would enter:
# fdupes /etc
To force fdupes to prompt you whether to preserve or delete files:
#fdupes -d /etc
As you can see, fdupes might be just what you need to clean up your server and possibly increase that precious disk space.
Source: nixCraft
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
