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Linux: Useful du (Disk Usage) Commands to Find Disk Usage of Files and Directories

The Linux “du” (Disk Usage) is a standard Unix/Linux command, used to check the information of disk usage of files and directories on a machine. The du command has many parameter options that can be used to get the results in many formats. The du command also displays the files and directory sizes in a recursively manner.

Most useful command
du -h --max-depth=1
1. To find out the disk usage summary of a /home/tecmint directory tree and each of its sub directories. Enter the command as:
[root@tecmint]# du  /home/tecmint

40      /home/tecmint/downloads
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12      /home/tecmint/.mozilla
12      /home/tecmint/.ssh
689112  /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
689360  /home/tecmint
The output of the above command displays the number of disk blocks in the /home/tecmint directory along with its sub-directories.
2. Using “-h” option with “du” command provides results in “Human Readable Format“. Means you can see sizes in Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes etc.
[root@tecmint]# du -h /home/tecmint

40K     /home/tecmint/downloads
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     /home/tecmint/.mozilla
12K     /home/tecmint/.ssh
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    /home/tecmint
3. To get the summary of a grand total disk usage size of an directory use the option “-s” as follows.
[root@tecmint]# du -sh /home/tecmint

674M    /home/tecmint
4. Using “-a” flag with “du” command displays the disk usage of all the files and directories.
[root@tecmint]# du -a /home/tecmint

4       /home/tecmint/.bash_logout
12      /home/tecmint/downloads/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
24      /home/tecmint/downloads/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
40      /home/tecmint/downloads
12      /home/tecmint/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12      /home/tecmint/.mozilla
4       /home/tecmint/.bashrc
689108  /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10/ubuntu-12.10-server-i386.iso
689112  /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
689360  /home/tecmint
5. Using “-a” flag along with “-h” displays disk usage of all files and folders in human readeable format. The below output is more easy to understand as it shows the files in Kilobytes, Megabytes etc.
[root@tecmint]# du -ah /home/tecmint

4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bash_logout
12K     /home/tecmint/downloads/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
24K     /home/tecmint/downloads/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
40K     /home/tecmint/downloads
12K     /home/tecmint/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     /home/tecmint/.mozilla
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bashrc
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10/ubuntu-12.10-server-i386.iso
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    /home/tecmint
6. Find out the disk usage of a directory tree with its subtress in Kilobyte blcoks. Use the “-k” (displays size in 1024 bytes units).
[root@tecmint]# du -k /home/tecmint
40      /home/tecmint/downloads
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4       /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12      /home/tecmint/.mozilla
12      /home/tecmint/.ssh
689112  /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
689360  /home/tecmint
7. To get the summary of disk usage of directory tree along with its subtrees in Megabytes (MB) only. Use the option “-mh” as follows. The “-m” flag counts the blocks in MB units and “-h” stands for human readable format.
[root@tecmint]# du -mh /home/tecmint

40K     /home/tecmint/downloads
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     /home/tecmint/.mozilla
12K     /home/tecmint/.ssh
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    /home/tecmint
8. The “-c” flag provides a grand total usage disk space at the last line. If your directory taken 674MBspace, then the last last two line of the output would be.
[root@tecmint]# du -ch /home/tecmint

40K     /home/tecmint/downloads
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     /home/tecmint/.mozilla
12K     /home/tecmint/.ssh
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    /home/tecmint
674M    total
9. The below command calculates and displays the disk usage of all files and directories, but excludes the files that matches given pattern. The below command excludes the “.txt” files while calculating the total size of diretory. So, this way you can exclude any file formats by using flag “-–exclude“. See the output there is no txt files entry.
[root@tecmint]# du -ah --exclude="*.txt" /home/tecmint

4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bash_logout
12K     /home/tecmint/downloads/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
24K     /home/tecmint/downloads/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
40K     /home/tecmint/downloads
12K     /home/tecmint/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bash_history
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bash_profile
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     /home/tecmint/.mozilla
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.bashrc
24K     /home/tecmint/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
4.0K    /home/tecmint/geoipupdate.sh
4.0K    /home/tecmint/.zshrc
120K    /home/tecmint/goaccess-0.4.2.tar.gz.1
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10/ubuntu-12.10-server-i386.iso
673M    /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    /home/tecmint
10. Display the disk usage based on modification of time, use the flag “–time” as shown below.
[root@tecmint]# du -ha --time /home/tecmint

4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.bash_logout
12K     2013-01-19 18:48        /home/tecmint/downloads/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
24K     2013-01-19 18:48        /home/tecmint/downloads/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
40K     2013-01-19 18:48        /home/tecmint/downloads
12K     2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/uploadprogress-1.0.3.1.tgz
4.0K    2012-10-13 00:11        /home/tecmint/.bash_history
4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.bash_profile
0       2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/xyz.txt
0       2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/abc.txt
4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.mozilla/extensions
12K     2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.mozilla
4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.bashrc
24K     2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
4.0K    2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/geoipupdate.sh
4.0K    2012-10-12 22:32        /home/tecmint/.zshrc
120K    2013-01-19 18:32        /home/tecmint/goaccess-0.4.2.tar.gz.1
673M    2013-01-19 18:51        /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10/ubuntu-12.10-server-i386.iso
673M    2013-01-19 18:51        /home/tecmint/Ubuntu-12.10
674M    2013-01-19 18:52        /home/tecmint
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