du(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to du — she's from the General Commands Manual, and she's here to estimate file space usage. that's it. that's the whole job. she looks at your files and tells you how much room they're taking up. she's the friend who tells you your Downloads folder is 47 gigabytes. iconic behaviour, honestly. 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

like, the whole vibe in one block:

du [--help] [-a|--all] [-A|--apparent-size] [-B|--block-size]
[-b|--bytes] [-c|--total] [-d|--max-depth] [-h|--human-readable]
[--inodes] [-k ] [-l|--count-links] [-L|--dereference]
[-D|--dereference-args] [-P|--no-dereference] [-m ] [-0|--null]
[-S|--separate-dirs] [-s|--summarize] [--si] [-x|--one-file-system]
[-t|--threshold] [-v|--verbose] [--exclude] [-X|--exclude-from]
[--files0-from] [--time] [--time-style] [-V|--version] [FILE]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Estimate file space usage. that's the mission statement. she runs, she counts, she reports. main character energy, no cap. ✨

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

the way that every single one of these exists and matters… let's go, one by one, no skipping, we don't do that here 💅

• --help — print help information. the "hey what do i do" button.
• -a, --all — write counts for all files, not just directories. every single one gets a moment in the spotlight. 👑
• -A, --apparent-size — print apparent sizes instead of disk usage. and here's the tea: apparent size is usually smaller, but it can be larger — because of holes in ('sparse') files, internal fragmentation, indirect blocks, and the like. so she's measuring the vibe, not the actual footprint.
• -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 down below, bestie.
• -b, --bytes — equivalent to '--apparent-size --block-size=1'. two-for-one, slay.
• -c, --total — produce a grand total. the grand finale. 🎀
• -d, --max-depth <N> — print the total for a directory (or a file, if you're using --all) only if it's N or fewer levels below the command line argument. and listen: --max-depth=0 is the same as --summarize. literally the same thing.
• -h, --human-readable — print sizes in human readable format, like 1K 234M 2G. so you don't have to do mental math at 2am. 🌸
• --inodes — list inode usage information instead of block usage, like --block-size=1K. different stat, same energy.
• -k — like --block-size=1K.
• -l, --count-links — count sizes many times if hard linked. yes, many times. she's thorough like that.
• -L, --dereference — follow all symbolic links. no fear. 🦋
• -D, --dereference-args — follow only the symlinks that are listed on the command line. selective dereferencing, we love boundaries.
• -P, --no-dereference — don't follow any symbolic links. and heads up, this is the default — that's just how she comes out of the box.
• -m — like --block-size=1M.
• -0, --null — end each output line with a 0 byte rather than a newline. for when newlines are the enemy.
• -S, --separate-dirs — do not include the size of subdirectories. everyone gets their own little box.
• -s, --summarize — display only a total for each argument. short and sweet, she ate.
• --si — like -h, but use powers of 1000 not 1024. metric girlies rise. 🌈
• -x, --one-file-system — skip directories on different file systems. stay in your lane, literally.
• -t, --threshold <SIZE> — exclude entries smaller than SIZE if it's positive, or entries greater than SIZE if it's negative. so like, a little sieve for your filesystem. 🍓
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode. and ngl, real talk: (option not present in GNU/Coreutils). just so you know.
• --exclude <PATTERN> — exclude files that match PATTERN. bye bestie 👋
• -X, --exclude-from <FILE> — exclude files that match any pattern in FILE. a whole list of exclusions, organised queen.
• --files0-from <FILE> — summarize device usage of the NUL-terminated file names specified in file F; if F is -, then read names from standard input. (that's literally what it says — file F.) 🧚
• --time[=<WORD>...] — show time of the last modification of any file in the directory, or any of its subdirectories. if WORD is given, show time as WORD instead of modification time: atime, access, use, ctime, status, birth or creation.

Possible values:

• atime
• ctime
• creation

• --time-style <STYLE> — show times using style STYLE: full-iso, long-iso, iso, +FORMAT. and FORMAT is interpreted like 'date'. 💜
• -V, --version — print version. the receipts.

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💫 EXTRA 💫

okay this is the lore drop, pay attention 📢

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. so yeah, those env vars are real and they're coming for your output format. 🙈

SIZE is an integer and optional unit (example: 10M is 10*1024*1024). Units are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB,... (powers of 1000). Units can be decimal, hexadecimal, octal, binary. so many flavours, all valid. ✨

PATTERN allows some advanced exclusions. for example, the following syntaxes are supported: ? will match only one character, * will match zero or more characters, {a,b} will match a or b. globby little things, obsessed. 🎀

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👑 VERSION 👑

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

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this is du from the uutils coreutils, version 0.7.0 — that's the source and the version, bestie, and the page signs off as du (uutils coreutils) 0.7.0. run du responsibly, check your disk space, hydrate, and remember: your home directory is not a storage unit. periodt. 💅🫶💖