One common thing every admin should take care before installing a new application on system or system upgrade or upgrading system to next available version (operating system upgrade) is current disk space usage.
Whether sufficient disk space is available or not to perform an operation? because when you running out of disk space, you may face so many problem which we can’t tell you exactly what will cause.
Linux administrator has checklist for daily/routine activity which will help admin to maintain the environment without any issues in terms of up and running.
Checking system disk usage is one of the main task for administrator to avoid further damage on system.
Suggested Read : 3 Easy Ways To Get A Summary Of Disk Usage (Directory & Folders Size) In Linux
du command stands for Disk Usage. It’s a standard Unix program which used to estimate file space usage in present working directory.
It summarize disk usage recursively to get a directory and its sub-directory size. In this article we are going to use possible options with du command to show you, how efficiently we can use du command to get a disk usage.
Print Disk Usage Without Any Option
The following command will print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi directory and its sub directories (Excluded files in output).
$ du /home/magi 4 /home/magi/.dbus 4 /home/magi/.lnav/crash 72 /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default 4 /home/magi/.lnav/formats/installed 80 /home/magi/.lnav/formats 212 /home/magi/.lnav 8 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#ajax.cdnjs.com 8 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#www.cyberciti.biz 24 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys 28 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer 32 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support 36 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com
Print Disk Usage Output With Files
The below command will print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi directory. The output shows directory ,sub-directories and files. Use -a option with du command.
$ du -a /home/magi 4 /home/magi/.dbus 4 /home/magi/c63f0847ff645ab3ffc4f959ee1517c6bac6b471.zip 2164 /home/magi/gifine-create-animated-gif-in-linux-4.gif 0 /home/magi/.lnav/exec.history 4 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-c64e378469faa12cdf59210e3908c4a4.ts1485845651.ppid3384.json 0 /home/magi/.lnav/cmd.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/capture.history 4 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485844997.ppid3384.json 4 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-8bfea43949fa2bc97e47f1c9be3a873f.ts1485844883.ppid3384.json 4 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485527812.ppid3384.json 20 /home/magi/.lnav/log_metadata.db
Print Disk Usage Output In Human Readable Format
To print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi in human readable format. By default df command shows the output in Bytes which is not clear and everyone get confused to understand the actual size. Use -h option with du command to get a output in proper format like Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, etc.,.
$ du -ah /home/magi 4.0K /home/magi/.dbus 4.0K /home/magi/c63f0847ff645ab3ffc4f959ee1517c6bac6b471.zip 2.2M /home/magi/gifine-create-animated-gif-in-linux-4.gif 0 /home/magi/.lnav/exec.history 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-c64e378469faa12cdf59210e3908c4a4.ts1485845651.ppid3384.json 0 /home/magi/.lnav/cmd.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/capture.history 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485844997.ppid3384.json 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-8bfea43949fa2bc97e47f1c9be3a873f.ts1485844883.ppid3384.json 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485527812.ppid3384.json 20K /home/magi/.lnav/log_metadata.db
Print Disk Usage Output With Grand Total
To print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi with grand total in the output. Use -c option with du command.
$ du -ahc /home/magi 4.0K /home/magi/.dbus 4.0K /home/magi/c63f0847ff645ab3ffc4f959ee1517c6bac6b471.zip 2.2M /home/magi/gifine-create-animated-gif-in-linux-4.gif 0 /home/magi/.lnav/exec.history 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-c64e378469faa12cdf59210e3908c4a4.ts1485845651.ppid3384.json 0 /home/magi/.lnav/cmd.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/capture.history 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485844997.ppid3384.json 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-8bfea43949fa2bc97e47f1c9be3a873f.ts1485844883.ppid3384.json 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485527812.ppid3384.json 20K /home/magi/.lnav/log_metadata.db . . 87M /home/magi/Documents 160K /home/magi/omnirun.tar 12K /home/magi/examples.desktop 0 /home/magi/.xsel.log 4.0K /home/magi/.nano 8.0K /home/magi/.bashrc 0 /home/magi/.log 4.4G /home/magi 4.4G total
Print Only Grand Total
To print only a grand total disk usage summary of a /home/magi. Use -s option with du command.
$ du -sh /home/magi/ 4.4G /home/magi/
Print Disk Usage Output In Kilobyte
To print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi in Kilobyte format. Use -k option with du command.
$ du -k /home/magi/ 4 /home/magi/.dbus 4 /home/magi/.lnav/crash 72 /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default 4 /home/magi/.lnav/formats/installed 80 /home/magi/.lnav/formats 212 /home/magi/.lnav 8 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#ajax.cdnjs.com 8 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#www.cyberciti.biz 24 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys 28 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer 32 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support 36 /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com
Print Disk Usage Output In Megabyte
To print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi in Megabyte format. Use -m option with du command.
$ du -mh /home/magi/ 4.0K /home/magi/.dbus 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/crash 72K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/installed 80K /home/magi/.lnav/formats 212K /home/magi/.lnav 8.0K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#ajax.cdnjs.com 8.0K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/#www.cyberciti.biz 24K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys 28K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer 32K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support 36K /home/magi/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com
Exclude Certain Files Format In Output
To print the disk usage summary of a /home/magi and exclude the text files in output as we don’t want to calculate the text files size. Use --exclude option with du command, also mention the file format which you want to exclude. In my case we are excluding the text files in output.
$ du -ah --exclude="*.json" /home/magi/ 4.0K /home/magi/.dbus 4.0K /home/magi/c63f0847ff645ab3ffc4f959ee1517c6bac6b471.zip 2.2M /home/magi/gifine-create-animated-gif-in-linux-4.gif 0 /home/magi/.lnav/exec.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/cmd.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/capture.history 20K /home/magi/.lnav/log_metadata.db 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/crash 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/search.history 0 /home/magi/.lnav/sql.history 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default/dhclient-summary.lnav 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default/dump-pid.sh 56K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default/default-formats.json.sample 4.0K /home/magi/.lnav/formats/default/partition-by-boot.lnav
Print An Output With Timestamp
Add the timestamp values in disk usage output to understand when it’s modified. Use --time option with du command.
$ du -ah --time /home/magi/ 4.0K 2017-01-02 22:26 /home/magi/.dbus 4.0K 2017-04-14 07:57 /home/magi/c63f0847ff645ab3ffc4f959ee1517c6bac6b471.zip 2.2M 2017-06-07 14:41 /home/magi/gifine-create-animated-gif-in-linux-4.gif 0 2017-01-31 12:41 /home/magi/.lnav/exec.history 4.0K 2017-01-31 12:24 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-c64e378469faa12cdf59210e3908c4a4.ts1485845651.ppid3384.json 0 2017-01-31 12:41 /home/magi/.lnav/cmd.history 0 2017-01-31 12:41 /home/magi/.lnav/capture.history 4.0K 2017-01-31 12:22 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485844997.ppid3384.json 4.0K 2017-01-31 12:11 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-8bfea43949fa2bc97e47f1c9be3a873f.ts1485844883.ppid3384.json 4.0K 2017-01-27 20:07 /home/magi/.lnav/view-info-eea2b981759af8049b7ab01bdbde6789.ts1485527812.ppid3384.json 20K 2017-01-31 12:41 /home/magi/.lnav/log_metadata.db
