How to find "growing" files inside a linux system

I have a server that is constantly losing disk space so I reckon there must be some logs that I'm not aware of.

What is a good way to locate files that are constantly increasing in size?

Solution 1:

There is an utility called gt5 that displays current directory sizes as well as the difference from the last time you've checked.

Solution 2:

you can use this command:

find / -size +100000k

which will return all files having space more than 100 Mega Bytes. you can decrease or increase the value of size depending upon your need.

Or

You can use a utility called "ncdu" , which automatically creates a MAP of file/folder sizes.

Solution 3:

Look at using the ncdu command (available here) to give a nice summary view of directory size throughout the system. There are only a few common locations to check on a standard system for log files, so this should be easy to monitor. This is a good first step for discovery.

Long term, you should do one of the following...

Write a script to search for files larger than a specific size.

The best approach, however, is probably log maintenance and rotation.