DF(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 27 versions
, in arch rolling

💾 df — the file system space check 💾

okay bestie, gather round, because df is literally the "how much room do I have left" of Unix and you're gonna be obsessed. It's from GNU coreutils, and yes, the manual name is df — short for disk free, main character energy fr fr.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

df [OPTION]... [FILE]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So this page is documenting the GNU version of df, just so we're clear. What it does is show you the amount of space available on the file system containing each file name argument you hand it. Every single one. 💅

And if you give it no file name at all? It just shows you the space available on all currently mounted file systems. Like, the whole vibe check of your disk situation.

Space comes out in 1K blocks by default — unless the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, in which case it's 512-byte blocks instead. iykyk. ✨

Now here's a lil nuance that's lowkey important:

  • If an argument is the absolute file name of a device node containing a mounted file system, df shows the space available on that file system rather than on the file system containing the device node. Sneaky but correct. 🦋
🫶 Heads up: this version of df cannot show the space available on unmounted file systems. Why? Because on most kinds of systems, doing so requires non-portable, intimate knowledge of file system structures. Not it. Not the vibe. It's just not happening. 😭

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

Show information about the file system on which each FILE resides, or all file systems by default. 🗂️

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. (Yes, the short ones get the same treatment. No shortcuts on the shortcuts. 💀)

  • -a, --all — include pseudo, duplicate, inaccessible file systems. the whole chaotic friend group 🫶
  • -B, --block-size=SIZE — scale sizes by SIZE before printing them; see SIZE format below; E.g., '-BM' prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes
  • -h, --human-readable — print sizes in powers of 1024 (e.g., 1023M) 🌸
  • -H, --si — print sizes in powers of 1000 (e.g., 1.1G) ✨
  • -i, --inodes — list inode information instead of block usage 🔍
  • -k — like --block-size=1K
  • -l, --local — limit listing to local file systems 🏠
  • --no-sync — do not invoke sync before getting usage info (default)
  • --output[=FIELD_LIST] — use the output format defined by FIELD_LIST, or print all fields if FIELD_LIST is omitted 👑
  • -P, --portability — use the POSIX output format
  • --sync — invoke sync before getting usage info
  • --total — elide all entries insignificant to available space, and produce a grand total 🧮
  • -t, --type=TYPE — limit listing to file systems of type TYPE
  • -T, --print-type — print file system type 🏷️
  • -x, --exclude-type=TYPE — limit listing to file systems not of type TYPE
  • -v — (ignored) 🙈 like it's literally not doing anything bestie
  • --help — display this help and exit
  • --version — output version information and exit

💖 the units situation 💖

Display values are in units of the first available SIZE from --block-size, and the DF_BLOCK_SIZE, BLOCK_SIZE and BLOCKSIZE environment variables. Otherwise, units default to 1024 bytes (or 512 if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set). Order matters, first one wins, no cap. ✨

The SIZE argument is an integer and an optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on. 🌈

🦋 FIELD_LIST 🦋

FIELD_LIST is a comma-separated list of columns to be included. Valid field names are: 'source', 'fstype', 'itotal', 'iused', 'iavail', 'ipcent', 'size', 'used', 'avail', 'pcent', 'file' and 'target' (see info page). 🎀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Torbjorn Granlund, David MacKenzie, and Paul Eggert. absolute legends, we stan. 💜

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

⚠️ There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. fr fr, none. 🙈

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

and that's the whole page, bestie — GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026, signing off 💖✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from