LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux du command

Estimate directory space use. Here, list direct children in readable units.

GNU Coreutils

Syntax

Command form

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

6 options

Option	What it does
`-h, --human-readable`	Print sizes in readable units.
`-s, --summarize`	Display only a total for each argument.
`-a, --all`	Include files as well as directories.
`-d N, --max-depth=N`	Limit output to N directory levels.
`-x, --one-file-system`	Skip directories on other filesystems.
`-c, --total`	Add a grand total.

3 examples

Estimate directory space use. Here, list direct children in readable units.

du -sh ./*

Show the total size of ./build.

du -sh ./build

List the ten largest entries by human-readable size.

du -ah . | sort -h | tail -n 10

Directory totals can include filesystem allocation and may differ from apparent file sizes. Large recursive scans can take time.