This script helps identify and optionally truncate files that have been deleted but are still held open by processes on a Linux system (commonly causing df to show full disk while du shows much less).

Deleted fd cleanup.md

Script Explanation: deleted_fd_cleanup.sh

This script helps identify and optionally truncate files that have been deleted but are still held open by processes on a Linux system (commonly causing df to show full disk while du shows much less).

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Features

1. Detects all (deleted) files currently held open by processes using lsof.
2. Ensures each PID+FD is handled only once to avoid duplicate operations.
3. Can run in two modes:

• Dry-run [--dry-run] (default): Shows which files would be truncated and their sizes without making any changes.
• Prune [--prune]: Actually truncates the files, freeing disk space.

4. Displays:

• PID and file descriptor (FD) path /proc/<pid>/fd/<fd>
• File size in human-readable form and in bytes
• Total size of all deleted files at the end

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How It Works

• Uses lsof to list deleted files.
• Parses PID and FD using awk.
• Checks if the /proc/<pid>/fd/<fd> exists.
• Truncates the file if in prune mode.
• Accumulates the total size of all deleted files.
• Prints per-file info and total space held by deleted files.

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Usage

1. Dry-run (default)

./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh

• Shows which deleted files are still held open and their sizes.
• Does not modify any files.
• Example output:

Would truncate /proc/30853/fd/62 size: 2.3G bytes: 2411724800
Would truncate /proc/31110/fd/1811 size: 500M bytes: 524288000

TOTAL space of deleted files: 2.78 MB

2. Explicit dry-run

./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh --dry-run

• Same as above; explicitly specifies dry-run mode.

3. Prune (truncate)

./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh --prune

• Truncates all deleted files that are still held open, freeing disk space.
• Prints per-file info and total space freed.
• Example output:

Truncated /proc/30853/fd/62 size: 2.3G bytes: 2411724800
Truncated /proc/31110/fd/1811 size: 500M bytes: 524288000

TOTAL space of deleted files: 2.78 MB

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Notes / Warnings

• Safe to use on log or temporary files.
• Do not truncate critical database or index files; it may corrupt the process.
• Always consider running dry-run first before pruning.
• Uses sudo because lsof and /proc/<pid>/fd/ require root permissions.

deleted_fd_cleanup.sh

#!/bin/bash
# deleted_fd_cleanup.sh
# Usage:
#   ./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh         # default dry-run
#   ./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh --dry-run
#   ./deleted_fd_cleanup.sh --prune

MODE="dry-run"
if [ "$1" == "--prune" ]; then
    MODE="prune"
elif [ "$1" == "--dry-run" ]; then
    MODE="dry-run"
fi

TOTAL=0

sudo lsof -nP | awk -v mode="$MODE" -v total_ref="$TOTAL" '
/\(deleted\)/ {
    pid=$2;
    rawfd=$4;
    gsub(/[^0-9]/,"",rawfd);
    if (rawfd != "") {
        key=pid"-"rawfd;
        if (!(key in seen)) {
            fdpath="/proc/"pid"/fd/"rawfd;
            if (system("[ -e " fdpath " ]")==0) {
                size_cmd="stat -c%s " fdpath;
                size=0;
                if ((size_cmd | getline sz) > 0) { size=sz }
                close(size_cmd)
                total += size
                # human-readable
                hum_cmd="du -h " fdpath;
                if ((hum_cmd | getline hum)>0) { }
                close(hum_cmd)

                if (mode=="dry-run") {
                    print "Would truncate", fdpath, "size:", hum, "bytes:", size
                } else if (mode=="prune") {
                    system("truncate -s 0 " fdpath)
                    print "Truncated", fdpath, "size:", hum, "bytes:", size
                }
            }
            seen[key]=1
        }
    }
}
END {
    printf "\nTOTAL space of deleted files: %.2f MB\n", total/1024/1024
}'