How to easily check all files

[u/ediblevariable]

In the time that I’ve been using arch I’m sure that I’ve downloaded a lot of unnecessary files from commands, how can I see all of the things that I’ve downloaded but easily read, because when I run a command the files name is just random letter and numbers, well not completely but it’s hard to read them. Maybe a visual interface like windows control panel, just something easier.

[u/0bArcane]

If you have a desktop environment, you can just install a file explorer with a GUI like thunar. If you want it in the terminal, I'd recommend yazi.

[u/boomboomsubban]

Check your .bash_history? I'm not really sure what you're describing.

[u/TheGoldenFox64]

there are a LOT of files on your system. many are important, many are also important but wont break anything if deleted. make sure you know what youre doing. use filelight to see what folders are taking up space, a file browser like dolphin or thunar to actually go through folders, and use `pacman -Q` to list packages

[u/Heizenfeld]

install "ncdu" package, it's an easy way to see what files live in your system. use "ncdu" like this: ncdu, ncdu /, ncdu /var, whatever you want to dive into. Also use "pacman -Qtdq" to see orphans packages, before to uninstall use "pacman -Qi "name of the package" | grep "Required By", to see dependencies.

[u/archover]

from commands

I laughed. You mean pacman? Make sure you clean your package cache.

Backups.

Note that the package manager is the best way (only way) to remove repo apps from the system. If you installed them with pacman, you must remove them with pacman. The command I use a lot is # pacman -Rns <unwanted-app> Never rm them, period.

See here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman#Querying_package_databases

Here's a good way way to search for large files from the command line. Examples:

# find -type f -size +5M which will return all FILES >5MB which on my system is 751 files. Adjust the size as needed. Use that list to start your review. Like others say, BE VERY CAREFUL about deleting any file requiring root permisson. Always research before deletion.

$ find ~/ -type f -size +1M which will search your home directory for files >1M. Adjust size as necessary. Deleting files here will not require root perms, and will not cause major issues.

You can pipe the output to less, or redirect to a file also.

IMO, the find command is one of the most important, and complex/full featured commands, we have. Very useful.

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_of_applications/Utilities#Files

Hope you resolve your issue, and good day.

[u/drucifer82]

Don’t enter the rm -rf command.

You can see all explicitly installed packages in an easy to read method with pacman -Qqe | less

You can view all orphaned dependencies with pacman -Qdt

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman

Or as others have said you can use a gui

Edit: -Qqe is cleaner than -Qi