du

Estimate disk space usage (POSIX)

Syntax:

du [-a|-s] [-kpqx] [file...]

Options:

-a

Generate a report for each file in the directory tree. If you don't specify this option, du makes a report for each directory only. The report shows the total space allocated to all files under the directory, including the directory itself.

-k

Report the space figures in Kbytes (the default is 512-byte blocks).

-p

Report the space figures in bytes (the default is 512-byte blocks). Also, ensure that du generates error messages when it can't process existing files (unless the -q option is specified).

-q

Be quiet; suppress error messages when du can't provide statistics on files, or can't read directories.

-s

Give the total figures for each of the specified files, rather than the totals for any subdirectories.

-x

Don't span device boundaries (used to determine how much space on a particular device is consumed by a directory tree).

file

The pathname of a file whose size is to be displayed. If you don't specify any files, the current directory is used; du behaves as if the filename dot (.) were given.

Description:

The du utility prints the amount of file space allocated to the specified files. If you name a directory, all files in that directory are reported; subdirectories are traversed recursively. If a file has multiple links, the space allocated to that file is counted only once.

The space figures are displayed in 512-byte blocks by default. If you want du to print the size in bytes, specify the -p option. The sizes output by du when you specify the -p option are accurate with one exception: the numbers may be slightly higher than expected because they include extent blocks that are part of filesystem overhead associated with the file, but don't contain actual data.

If you specify nondirectories, they aren't listed unless you specify the -a option.

All results are written to the standard output. Errors may result in diagnostic messages to the standard error. Standard input isn't used.

Examples:

Estimate disk space consumed by the contents of /tmp, in kbytes:

du -k /tmp

Estimate the total space occupied by the contents of the current directory:

du -s

Exit status:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred. This doesn't include failure to read files or directories.