Stage 4 · Lesson 8 of 8

Disk space and system information

A full causes strange failures: builds crash, stop and Git cannot save. df -h shows how much free space each disk has. du -sh * shows how big each item in the current folder is, and du -sh * | sort -h lists them with the biggest last.

On developer machines, space usually goes to node_modules folders, images, and old . A few other quick checks help too: uname -a shows the kernel version, free -h shows memory on Linux and uptime shows how busy the machine has been. These are the first checks when a machine misbehaves.

Common trapdeleting files at random to free space instead of measuring what is actually large.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with· follow one of these

BookFree
The Linux Command Line
William Shotts · Beginner
Its chapters on permissions and processes are the clearest free explanation of this stage
GuideFree
The Linux Command Line for Beginners (Ubuntu)
Canonical · Beginner
Includes a short, careful section on the superuser and when to use sudo

Practise

OverTheWire: Bandit
Later levels need permissions, setuid binaries and processes to progress

Keep handy

nvm (Node Version Manager)
The official README for installing nvm and switching Node versions per project
ArchWiki
Deep pages on users, groups, permissions and system maintenance for any distribution

Also worth your time

roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
See the users, permissions and process management branches of the Linux map