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storage-reclaim

Rapidly find and reclaim disk storage by identifying build artifacts, git garbage, temp files, and other space hogs. Use when disk is full or running low on space.

personAuthor: jakexiaohubgithub

Storage Reclaim

Rapid parallel investigation and cleanup of disk storage.

Quick Start

# Top-level overview
du -sh /path/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head -20

# Drill into specific directory
du -sh /path/subdir/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head -15

Common Space Hogs

1. Rust Build Artifacts (target/)

  • Location: Any Rust project root
  • Size: 1-10+ GB per project
  • Safe to delete: Yes (rebuilds on next cargo build)
# Find all Rust target directories
find ~ -type d -name "target" -exec du -sh {} \; 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head -20

# Clean specific project
rm -rf /path/to/project/target

# Or use cargo
cd /path/to/project && cargo clean

2. Git Garbage (tmp_pack files)

  • Location: .git/objects/pack/tmp_pack_*
  • Cause: Interrupted git operations
  • Size: Can be gigabytes
# Check for git garbage
git count-objects -vH
# Look for "size-garbage" line

# Remove stale pack files
rm -f .git/objects/pack/tmp_pack_*

# Verify cleanup
git count-objects -vH

3. Node Modules

  • Location: node_modules/ in JS projects
  • Size: 100MB - 2GB per project
# Find all node_modules
find ~ -type d -name "node_modules" -prune -exec du -sh {} \; 2>/dev/null | sort -hr

# Remove (can reinstall with npm install)
rm -rf /path/to/project/node_modules

4. Python Virtual Environments

  • Location: .venv/, venv/, env/
  • Size: 100MB - 1GB per environment
find ~ -type d \( -name ".venv" -o -name "venv" -o -name "env" \) -exec du -sh {} \; 2>/dev/null | sort -hr

5. Hidden Temp Directories

  • Location: .tmp/, .cache/, __pycache__/
  • Often overlooked by du on directories
# Check hidden dirs specifically
du -sh /path/.* 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head -10

6. Julia Artifacts

  • Location: ~/.julia/artifacts/, ~/.julia/compiled/
  • Size: Can grow to many GB
du -sh ~/.julia/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -hr

7. Docker

docker system df
docker system prune -a  # Remove all unused images/containers

8. Homebrew

brew cleanup --dry-run  # Preview
brew cleanup            # Actually clean

Investigation Pattern

  1. Start broad: du -sh /path/*/ | sort -hr | head -20
  2. Drill into largest: Repeat for subdirectories
  3. Check hidden: du -sh /path/.* | sort -hr
  4. Git check: git count-objects -vH in any repo
  5. Clean safely: Remove build artifacts first (always regeneratable)

Safety Rules

  • Always safe to delete: target/, node_modules/, .tmp/, __pycache__/, build/
  • Check first: .git/ (might have garbage, might be real history)
  • Never delete blindly: Actual source code, .git/objects/pack/*.pack (real packs)
  • Regeneratable: Anything that cargo build, npm install, pip install creates

Parallel Investigation

Run multiple du commands simultaneously for faster discovery:

# In parallel (use separate terminal or background)
du -sh ~/project1/*/ | sort -hr &
du -sh ~/project2/*/ | sort -hr &
wait

Scientific Skill Interleaving

This skill connects to the K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-skills ecosystem:

Graph Theory

  • networkx [○] via bicomodule
    • Universal graph hub

Bibliography References

  • general: 734 citations in bib.duckdb

Cat# Integration

This skill maps to Cat# = Comod(P) as a bicomodule in the equipment structure:

Trit: 0 (ERGODIC)
Home: Prof
Poly Op: ⊗
Kan Role: Adj
Color: #26D826

GF(3) Naturality

The skill participates in triads satisfying:

(-1) + (0) + (+1) ≡ 0 (mod 3)

This ensures compositional coherence in the Cat# equipment structure.