Duplicate content safe to delete ???

[oldlock]

I've found some doubled up content on a server.

Here's the content of home/home which should be the user accounts on the server.



And near duplicate content sitting in home/etc/home ?



The std home folder is 7GB, the etc folder 5.9GB. Is it safe to delete the contents of this folder ? I'm assuming they are some kind of backup from a previous server move ........

 

[cPanelTristan]

Please check in root SSH that these are not hard links with the same inode number:

ls -li /home
ls -li /home/etc/home

 

[Infopro]

Dates on some directories in home/ are newer than the same ones in etc/home/ in the images. If this is not hard linked, (I don't think it is as the user accounts seem to be being updated in home/ properly), rename it first and be sure everything still works. Move it if nothing breaks, delete it when you need the space back. Safer than just deleting I think.

 

[cPanelTristan]

It's always safer to check the inode numbers. I wouldn't trust dates or times as the litmus test. The inode numbers always tell if the file or folder is the same or not.

 

[oldlock]

Here's the results of the two inode tests.

 

[cPanelTristan]

Going forward, it's a lot easier to copy and paste text over images to see the content when it's a text-based display such as shell. The inode numbers are different, so you could move the folder elsewhere to ensure everything is functioning and remove that folder after that at your own discretion.

You are able to see the inode numbers (to the far left) are different, correct? When you see that's the case, you know they aren't hard links then.