Perl script to monitor disk space and send an email

Here is a quick question by one of our regular reader :

How to write a perl script that can monitor my disk space under UNIX or Linux and send me an email alert?

There is a nice perl system routine called Perl df or Filesys::DiskSpace. This routine displays information on a file system such as its type, the amount of disk space occupied, the total disk space and the number of inodes etc.

Task: Install Filesys::DiskSpace

First you need to install this perl module using apt-get or from cpan (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network).
$ sudo apt-get install libfilesys-diskspace-perl

Perl script code to monitor disk space

Now write a perl script called df.pl:
$ vi df.pl
Append following code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Filesys::DiskSpace;
 
# file system /home or /dev/sda5
my $dir = "/home";
 
# get data for /home fs
my ($fs_type, $fs_desc, $used, $avail, $fused, $favail) = df $dir;
 
# calculate free space in %
my $df_free = (($avail) / ($avail+$used)) * 100.0;
 
# display message
my $out = sprintf("Disk space on $dir == %0.2f\n",$df_free);
print $out;
 

Save and close the file. Run this script as follows:
$ chmod +x df.pl
$ ./df.pl
Output:

Disk space on /home == 75.35

So /home has 75.35% free disk space. Next logical step is to compare this number to limit so that you can send an email if only 10% free disk space is left on /home file system. Here is the code with

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Filesys::DiskSpace;
 
my $dir = "/home";
 
# warning level 10%
my $warning_level=10;
 
my ($fs_type, $fs_desc, $used, $avail, $fused, $favail) = df $dir;
my $df_free = (($avail) / ($avail+$used)) * 100.0;
 
# compare free disk space with warning level
if ($df_free < $warning_level) {
my $out = sprintf("Send an Email - Disk space on $dir => %0.2f%% (WARNING Low Disk Space)\n",$df_free);
print $out;
}
else
{
my $out = sprintf("Disk space on $dir => %0.2f%% (OK)\n",$df_free);
print $out;
}

Run script as follows:
$ ./df.pl
Output:

Send an Email - Disk space on /home => 3.99% (WARNING Low Disk Space)

Here is final code that send an email alert ( download):

#!/usr/bin/perl
# Available under BSD License. See url for more info:
# http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-write-perl-script-to-monitor-disk-space.html
use strict;
use warnings;
use Filesys::DiskSpace;
 
# file system to monitor
my $dir = "/home";
 
# warning level
my $warning_level=10;
 
# email setup
my $to='admin@yourdomain.com';
my $from='webmaster@YOURDOMAIN.COM';
my $subject='Low Disk Space';
 
# get df
my ($fs_type, $fs_desc, $used, $avail, $fused, $favail) = df $dir;
 
# calculate
my $df_free = (($avail) / ($avail+$used)) * 100.0;
 
# compare
if ($df_free < $warning_level) {
my $out = sprintf("WARNING Low Disk Space on $dir : %0.2f%% ()\n",$df_free);
 
# send email using UNIX/Linux sendmail
open(MAIL, "|/usr/sbin/sendmail -t");
 
## Mail Header
print MAIL "To: $to\\n";
print MAIL "From: $from\\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $subject\\n";
 
## Mail Body
print MAIL $out;
 
close(MAIL);
}
 

You can run this script as a cron job:
@hourly /path/to/df.pl

Recommended readings

=> Read man page of this module by typing following command:
$ man filesys::diskspace

=> CPAN filesys::diskspace webpage

=> Sending mail with Perl mail script and How do I send html email from Perl?

=> Shell script to monitor or watch the disk space