Arch Linux

oreboat

Member

Registered: 2026-02-05

Posts: 3

properly remove deleted files from root

was trying to figure out why my root is so bloated and through the command lsof | grep deletedfound I have a bunch of files that are deleted but still exist in storage, the problem, I don't know how to get rid of them and I haven't found anything through googling "arch remove deleted files that still have a handle", if someone could either tell me how to remove these it would be greatly appreciated, thank you

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,982

Re: properly remove deleted files from root

if you used a graphical file manager check your trash
if you use BtrFS with snapshots: if you have data in older snapshots deleted in newer ones the older snapshots keep the data - clean up your snapshots

oreboat

Member

Registered: 2026-02-05

Posts: 3

Re: properly remove deleted files from root

alas, that appears to not have removed the files that are returned when I call  lsof | grep deleted
this is the output if that helps any
https://pastebin.com/FwjZMNyT

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,591

Re: properly remove deleted files from root

Yes, files that are opened aren't completely removed until they are closed. Completely normal and desired behavior. How to get rid of them should be obvious, close them.

Last edited by Scimmia (2026-02-05 17:49:22)

oreboat

Member

Registered: 2026-02-05

Posts: 3

Re: properly remove deleted files from root

that makes sense actually, I guess I'll just have to increase how much storage I allocate for my root

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,982

Re: properly remove deleted files from root

how about just reboot the system? what's the uptime?