Linux: du command

This Linux tutorial explains how to use the Linux du command with syntax and arguments.

NAME

du - estimate file space usage

SYNOPSIS

du [OPTION]... [FILE]...
du [OPTION]... --files0-from=F

DESCRIPTION

Summarize disk usage of each FILE, recursively for directories.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-a, --all

write counts for all files, not just directories

--apparent-size

print apparent sizes, rather than disk usage; although the apparent size is usually smaller, it may be larger due to holes in (`sparse') files, internal fragmentation, indirect blocks, and the like

-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

--files0-from=F

summarize disk usage of the NUL-terminated file names specified in file F; If F is - then read names from standard input

-H

equivalent to --dereference-args (-D)

-h, --human-readable

print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)

--si

like -h, but use powers of 1000 not 1024

-k

like --block-size=1K

-l, --count-links

count sizes many times if hard linked

-m

like --block-size=1M

-L, --dereference

dereference all symbolic links

-P, --no-dereference

don't follow any symbolic links (this is the default)

-0, --null

end each output line with 0 byte rather than newline

-S, --separate-dirs

do not include size of subdirectories

-s, --summarize

display only a total for each argument

-x, --one-file-system

skip directories on different file systems

-X, --exclude-from=FILE

exclude files that match any pattern in FILE

--exclude=PATTERN

exclude files that match PATTERN

-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

--time

show time of the last modification of any file in the directory, or any of its subdirectories

--time=WORD

show time as WORD instead of modification time: atime, access, use, ctime or status

--time-style=STYLE

show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso, +FORMAT FORMAT is interpreted like `date'

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Display values are in units of the first available SIZE from --block-size, and the DU_BLOCK_SIZE, BLOCK_SIZE and BLOCKSIZE environment variables. Otherwise, units default to 1024 bytes (or 512 if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set).

SIZE may be (or may be an integer optionally followed by) one of following: KB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y.

PATTERNS

PATTERN is a shell pattern (not a regular expression). The pattern ? matches any one character, whereas * matches any string (composed of zero, one or multiple characters). For example, *.o will match any files whose names end in .o. Therefore, the command

du --exclude='*.o'

will skip all files and subdirectories ending in .o (including the file .o itself).