Install fdupes on Ubuntu 24.04

One of the ways to free up disk space on the system is to delete the duplicate files. The fdupes is a tool that enables to find duplicate files and delete them via command line. Duplicate files are identified by comparing file sizes, MD5 signatures, and doing a byte-by-byte comparison.

This tutorial shows how to install fdupes on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install fdupes

Run the following command to update the package lists:

sudo apt update

Next, install fdupes:

sudo apt install -y fdupes

We can check fdupes version as follows:

fdupes --version

Testing fdupes

To test, create a text file and duplicate it:

echo "Hello" > test.txt

cp test.txt test2.txt

cp test.txt test3.txt

For example, to search duplicate files in the current working directory, run the following command:

fdupes .

When searching is finished, command prints duplicate files:

./test.txt
./test2.txt
./test3.txt

The -d option prompts the user to specify the files which should be preserved, while deleting all others:

fdupes -d .

Duplicate files are listed, and we need to choose which of them should be preserved:

Set 1 of 1:

  1 [ ] ./test.txt
  2 [ ] ./test2.txt
  3 [ ] ./test3.txt
 
( Preserve files [1 - 3, all, help] ):
Type 'exit' to exit fdupes.

In our case, we choose to preserve a first file. Other files will be deleted:

Set 1 of 1:

  1 [+] ./test.txt
  2 [-] ./test2.txt
  3 [-] ./test3.txt

( Preserve files [1 - 3, all, help] )= 1
1 files marked for preservation, 2 for deletion

Once files selected for deletion, type prune command. To exit prompt, enter exit command.

The -r option can be used to find duplicate files recursively under every directory, including subdirectories:

sudo fdupes -r /etc

It is possible to provide more than one directory:

sudo fdupes -r /etc /var/lib

Empty files can be ignored with -n option:

sudo fdupes -rn /etc /var/lib

Uninstall fdupes

If you wish to completely remove fdupes, run the following command:

sudo apt purge --autoremove -y fdupes