du command tutorial in linux/unix with examples and use cases

Linux du command – estimate file space usage

Linux du command recursively summarizes the disk usage of a file or directory.

Syntax

 du [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Options

• -0, –null
  end each output line with NUL, not newline
• -a, –all
      write counts for all files, not just directories
• -B, –block-size=SIZE
      scale sizes by SIZE before printing them; e.g., ‘-BM’ prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes; see SIZE format below
• -b, –bytes
      equivalent to ‘–apparent-size –block-size=1’
• -c, –total
      produce a grand total
• -D, –dereference-args
      dereference only symlinks that are listed on the command line
• -d, –max-depth=N
      print the total for a directory (or file, with –all) only  if  it  is  N  or  fewer  levels  below  the  command  line  argument;
  –max-depth=0 is the same as –summarize
• -H
      equivalent to –dereference-args (-D)
• -h, –human-readable
      print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
• –inodes
      list inode usage information instead of block usage
• -k
      like –block-size=1K
• -L, –dereference
       dereference all symbolic links
• -l, –count-links
      count sizes many times if hard linked
• -m
      like –block-size=1M
• -P, –no-dereference
      don’t follow any symbolic links (this is the default)
• -S, –separate-dirs
      for directories do not include size of subdirectories
• –si
    like -h, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
• -s, –summarize
      display only a total for each argument
• -t, –threshold=SIZE
        exclude entries smaller than SIZE if positive, or entries greater than SIZE if negative
• -X, –exclude-from=FILE
        exclude files that match any pattern in FILE
• –exclude=PATTERN
        exclude files that match PATTERN
• -x, –one-file-system
      skip directories on different file systems

Examples & Use Cases

Show the space used by a directory or file

In the following example, we use the du -aBK option to display the disk space used by all directories and files in the current directory.

 ➜  du -aBK

Show file disk space usage

In the following example, we use the df -sh option to display disk space usage of a single file.

➜  du -sh install.sh