mdu(1)

📦
version 4.0.49 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

mdu — display the amount of space occupied by an MSDOS directory. It's basically giving "du but make it MSDOS" and honestly? We're obsessed. 👑

This is the manual page for mdu(1) from the General Commands Manual section, just so you know where you are bestie. 🫶

⚠️ NOTE OF WARNING ⚠️

okay so, real talk before anything else: this manpage was automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation. Which means it may not be entirely accurate or complete 😭. Please please please read the end of this man page for the details on how to get the real thing. Don't come for me, come for the generator. 💀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

mdu is used to list the space occupied by a directory, its subdirectories and its files. It's similar to the du command on Unix, but it lives in MSDOS-land now and it's thriving. 🦋

The units it works in are clusters. And if you're sitting there like "okay but how big is a cluster tho" — go run the minfo command, that's literally what it's for. 🌸

Here's the whole vibe in one line:

mdu [-a] [ msdosfiles ... ]

And now the options, bestie, there are two of them and they're both little icons ✨:

  • -a — All files, periodt. This one also lists the space occupied for individual files. You want the receipts for every single file? This is the flag. 🔥
  • -s — Only list the total space. No details for each subdirectory, just the sum, just the headline number, main character energy only. 💅

🔎 SEE ALSO 🔎

  • Mtools' texinfo doc

📖 VIEWING THE TEXI DOC 📖

So here's the situation: this manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation. But the process is only approximative (their word, and it's a whole mood), and some items — like crossreferences, footnotes and indices — get lost in translation. Genuinely lost. Because those items have no appropriate representation in the manpage format. 😭 And on top of that, not all information has been translated into the manpage version at all.

So I strongly advise you to use the original texinfo doc instead. See the end of this manpage for the instructions on how to view it. 💖

Now the actual how-tos:

  • To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:
./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi
  • To generate a html copy, run:
./configure; make html

A premade html can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html — no building required, she's already dressed and ready. 👑

  • To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:
./configure; make info

And a lil note on the aesthetics: the texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html. Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read, due to the quoting conventions used in info. So like, she serves looks in print and html, and in info she's wearing a slightly awkward outfit. We still love her. 🌈

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 go forth and check your cluster sizes, you absolute icon 🫶

this was mtools-4.0.49, dated 14Jun25 — catch you on the next mdu(1), mwah 💜

📦 where this page comes from