Linux: Find Out Directory Size Command

by VIVEK GITE on JUNE 9, 2013

in BASH SHELL, COMMANDS, LINUX

Iam a new Linux user. How do I find out size of a directory on Linux operating systems using command line options?

You need to use the du command:

[a] Find and estimate file space usage.

Tutorial details
Difficulty	Easy (rss)
Root privileges	No
Requirements	du
Estimated completion time	Less than a one minute

[b] Summarize disk usage of each FILE/Directory/Folder.

[c] Shows the sizes of directories and files.

Syntax

The basic syntax is:

du
du dirName
du [options] dirName

Examples

Without any options, du command shows the names and used space for each directories including all sub-directories in the current directory:
du
Sample outputs:

Fig.01: du command in action

To find information about /etc and /home/nixcraft directory, enter:
du /path/to/dir
du /etc
du /home/nixcraft
du /root /home/nixcraft

Pass the -h option to get output in human readable format i.e. show output in kilobytes (K), megabytes (M) and gigabytes (G):
du -h /etc
du -h /dir1/file2
du -h /root
du -h
Sample outputs:

8.0K ./.vim
24K ./scripts
48K ./.ssh
16K ./.keychain
2.2M ./.lftp
2.4M .

Pass the -s option to see the total disk space used by a directory:
du -sh
du -sh /etc/
du -sh /etc /home/ /securebackup/
Sample outputs:

4.1M /etc
152K /home/
902M /securebackup/

Pass the -c to see a grand total for all of the files, type:
du -csh /root/ /etc/ /home/
Sample outputs:

2.4M /root/
4.1M /etc/
152K /home/
6.6M total