Find large files by using the OSX commandline

Posted on by David Craddock

To quickly find large files to delete if you have filled your startup disk, enter this command on the OSX terminal:

sudo find / -size +500000 -print

This will find and print out file paths to files over 500MB. You can then go through them and delete them individually by typing rm “<file path>”, although there is no undelete so make sure you know you won’t miss them.

Published by David Craddock

3 thoughts on “Find large files by using the OSX commandline”

  1. Thanks for the command – it was verry helpful for me.
    .. but one small thing .. it does NOT show files > 500MB.
    It shows files > 500.000 blocks -> means 250.000 kByte …
    … at least on my mac:
    “man find”
    -size n[ckMGTP]
    True if the file’s size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks is n.
    – – –
    the command “… -size +500000k …” or “… -size +500M …” would show 500MB.
    you may check it with something like
    “find / -size +500000k -exec ls -al -h {} ;”

    best regards & thanks agin for the command ..
    jürgen

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