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When cleaning up the computer I want to find and delete duplicate files. This is a one liner that will find duplicate files:


Easy to remember command right? If not - maybe it is time to make an alias:


Now you can navigate to your directory of choice and check it for duplicate files by typing . This will check all subdirectories too.
This is good for finding duplicate pictures and mp3's etc. It is not a good idea to delete duplicate files from themes and icon sets etc.
Just delete stuff that you have put there.
I always find a lot of duplicates in my Downloads directory..

Now if you want to find and delete duplicate files in one operation you could enter this command:

Enter y to confirm that all findings should be deleted. This is probably not a smart thing to do - and dangerous.
No risk - no fun though

To find and delete duplicate files; you can also install fdupes.

You need to enter a directory

This will find all duplicates in your Download directory.

To delete them you can do a:

This will present you with a list of how many duplicates you want to preserve. Typing 1 (one) will preserve one copy.

You will have to do this for every duplicate found.

If you want to scan and remove recursively you can use the -r switch:


To see the size of the duplicates you can use the -S switch: