How to understand what's taking up disk space?












76














I'm looking for a linux alternative to WinDirStat. I would like to know what is taking up space on my hard drives.



A program that works on console and doesn't require a UI is preferred .










share|improve this question
























  • ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
    – SDsolar
    Sep 9 '17 at 7:42
















76














I'm looking for a linux alternative to WinDirStat. I would like to know what is taking up space on my hard drives.



A program that works on console and doesn't require a UI is preferred .










share|improve this question
























  • ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
    – SDsolar
    Sep 9 '17 at 7:42














76












76








76


21





I'm looking for a linux alternative to WinDirStat. I would like to know what is taking up space on my hard drives.



A program that works on console and doesn't require a UI is preferred .










share|improve this question















I'm looking for a linux alternative to WinDirStat. I would like to know what is taking up space on my hard drives.



A program that works on console and doesn't require a UI is preferred .







disk-usage






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited May 25 '17 at 23:14









Gilles

530k12810621590




530k12810621590










asked Nov 12 '10 at 5:40









ripper234ripper234

8,969346785




8,969346785












  • ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
    – SDsolar
    Sep 9 '17 at 7:42


















  • ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
    – SDsolar
    Sep 9 '17 at 7:42
















ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
– SDsolar
Sep 9 '17 at 7:42




ncdu is my preferred answer, but I see the first answer says you're having problems with it that aren't in your question.
– SDsolar
Sep 9 '17 at 7:42










12 Answers
12






active

oldest

votes


















64














Based on your issues in installing ncdu my recommendation would be to use du and sort on together.



For instance:





  • du /home | sort -rn (will search all files/directories under /home and sort them by largest to smallest.


  • du -h /home | sort -rh (same but will show it in MB/KB/etc) - Note this requires coreutils 7.5 or newer (sort --version to check)


You can replace /home with any directory of your choice.






share|improve this answer























  • That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
    – ripper234
    Nov 12 '10 at 11:26










  • Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
    – N J
    Nov 12 '10 at 11:27








  • 2




    OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
    – lapo
    Jan 13 '11 at 21:39






  • 2




    I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
    – gabe.
    Feb 2 '11 at 4:48



















79














If you want a command-line tool, I prefer ncdu, an ncurses version of du. It scans the disk (or a given folder) and then shows the top-level space usages; you can select a given directory to get the corresponding summary for that directory, and go back without needing to reanalyze:



Screenshot of ncdu





If you're ok with a GUI program, Filelight is the closest thing to WinDirStat I've found; it shows a graphical view of space consumption:



Screenshot of Filelight



Like ncdu, Filelight lets you select a given directory to get the breakdown for that directory






share|improve this answer



















  • 2




    don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
    – Janus Troelsen
    Sep 8 '16 at 11:51





















33














You should be aware that WinDirStat is actually a port of KDirStat, which is a Linux/KDE program. So, if you are looking for a Linux alternative to WinDirStat, you certainly should take a look at KDirStat. It is already packaged in most distros, just install it.



Another alternative is FileLight, already cited by Michael Mrozek, and the Konqueror plugin fsview (you can run it standalone from the command-line).






share|improve this answer



















  • 14




    Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
    – Michael Mrozek
    Nov 13 '10 at 3:27






  • 2




    @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
    – David Oneill
    Nov 16 '10 at 20:36






  • 2




    Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
    – y3sh
    May 17 '18 at 13:26










  • or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
    – y3sh
    Nov 29 '18 at 21:32



















29














Another GUI program is: baobab



alt text






share|improve this answer





















  • In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
    – phunehehe
    Dec 27 '10 at 4:09










  • It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
    – golimar
    Aug 13 '18 at 10:26





















8














Use QDirStat (formerly KDirStat).



It includes a perl script that generates a cache file on the server/console without any need for an UI to be running/installed; transfer it to your desktop machine and view it in the gui client.



See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/256516/186308 for details.






share|improve this answer























  • it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
    – Blauhirn
    May 17 '18 at 20:17



















6














There's also this cool python script from /www.vrplumber.com/programming/runsnakerun/



bzr branch lp:~mcfletch/squaremap/trunk squaremap



It's not the most feature rich, but it's run from a single python script so it's extremely portable.



alt text






share|improve this answer





























    6














    If you looked at the about screen on windirstat it showed you that it's based on kdirstat.



    http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/






    share|improve this answer





















    • I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
      – Volker Siegel
      Aug 28 '14 at 9:09



















    5














    I prefer the following command line:



    $  du -s -m -x * | sort -n


    Breaking it down, du shows disk usage; -s says print the total for each argument (each item in the current directory), -m says show the size in Megabytes. This makes it easier for sort to work; sort doesn't really understand the -h output. The -x ignores other filesystems; this is useful when trying to find space hogs in /var, and /var/spool/foo is a different filesystem.






    share|improve this answer























    • Doesn't the top answer already use du?
      – muru
      Dec 3 '14 at 13:53










    • Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
      – P Joslin
      Dec 3 '14 at 20:43










    • Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
      – John Eisbrener
      Oct 13 '16 at 14:06



















    4














    You could also try GD Map, another GUI tool based on treemaps.








    share|improve this answer































      2














      xdiskusage is very flexible, lightweight with very lean dependencies, easy to compile..



      It shows a tree left-to-right that you can navigate with mouse or arrow keys, zoom in (click or enter), hide some parts for a better view, change sort order, number of colors etc with keys or context menu.



      It's so lighweight that you can use it on a remote SSH link with good performance. In this case I recommend -q command line option to disable the progress bar that appears while files are walked.



      You can also optionally run du yourself beforehand.



      One situation is a remote filesystem which is full or near-full. On that system run du -ak | gzip >log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz, fetch the output and run gzip -dc log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz | xdiskusage -aq locally.

      Or even ssh myremotesystem "cd /filesystem_near_full/ ; du -ak | gzip" > log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz to store the result locally without writing anything remotely.



      xdiskusage does not offer to modify the filesystem (like move to trash, etc) but you can copy a path to clipboard and paste that into a file manager, terminal etc.



      xdiskusage screenshot






      share|improve this answer





























        1














        I have recently used command line tool (CLI, not TUI): http://zevv.nl/play/code/philesight/



        It produces a PNG file which you can view somewhere else. It also has a CGI script.



        Most likely you are not limited to text mode at your local workstation, so it should be appropriate.






        share|improve this answer





























          1














          Also to see the files in a specific directory sorted by size after you have found the directory using du use:



          ls -lrSh





          share|improve this answer





















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            12 Answers
            12






            active

            oldest

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            12 Answers
            12






            active

            oldest

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            active

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            active

            oldest

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            64














            Based on your issues in installing ncdu my recommendation would be to use du and sort on together.



            For instance:





            • du /home | sort -rn (will search all files/directories under /home and sort them by largest to smallest.


            • du -h /home | sort -rh (same but will show it in MB/KB/etc) - Note this requires coreutils 7.5 or newer (sort --version to check)


            You can replace /home with any directory of your choice.






            share|improve this answer























            • That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
              – ripper234
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:26










            • Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
              – N J
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:27








            • 2




              OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
              – lapo
              Jan 13 '11 at 21:39






            • 2




              I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
              – gabe.
              Feb 2 '11 at 4:48
















            64














            Based on your issues in installing ncdu my recommendation would be to use du and sort on together.



            For instance:





            • du /home | sort -rn (will search all files/directories under /home and sort them by largest to smallest.


            • du -h /home | sort -rh (same but will show it in MB/KB/etc) - Note this requires coreutils 7.5 or newer (sort --version to check)


            You can replace /home with any directory of your choice.






            share|improve this answer























            • That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
              – ripper234
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:26










            • Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
              – N J
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:27








            • 2




              OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
              – lapo
              Jan 13 '11 at 21:39






            • 2




              I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
              – gabe.
              Feb 2 '11 at 4:48














            64












            64








            64






            Based on your issues in installing ncdu my recommendation would be to use du and sort on together.



            For instance:





            • du /home | sort -rn (will search all files/directories under /home and sort them by largest to smallest.


            • du -h /home | sort -rh (same but will show it in MB/KB/etc) - Note this requires coreutils 7.5 or newer (sort --version to check)


            You can replace /home with any directory of your choice.






            share|improve this answer














            Based on your issues in installing ncdu my recommendation would be to use du and sort on together.



            For instance:





            • du /home | sort -rn (will search all files/directories under /home and sort them by largest to smallest.


            • du -h /home | sort -rh (same but will show it in MB/KB/etc) - Note this requires coreutils 7.5 or newer (sort --version to check)


            You can replace /home with any directory of your choice.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36









            Community

            1




            1










            answered Nov 12 '10 at 10:46









            N JN J

            2,2051316




            2,2051316












            • That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
              – ripper234
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:26










            • Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
              – N J
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:27








            • 2




              OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
              – lapo
              Jan 13 '11 at 21:39






            • 2




              I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
              – gabe.
              Feb 2 '11 at 4:48


















            • That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
              – ripper234
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:26










            • Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
              – N J
              Nov 12 '10 at 11:27








            • 2




              OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
              – lapo
              Jan 13 '11 at 21:39






            • 2




              I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
              – gabe.
              Feb 2 '11 at 4:48
















            That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
            – ripper234
            Nov 12 '10 at 11:26




            That's excellent, thanks for the help. My coreutils is 5.97 - is this why the sort order of du -h isn't right?
            – ripper234
            Nov 12 '10 at 11:26












            Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
            – N J
            Nov 12 '10 at 11:27






            Yep, you'd have to settle for du /home | sort -rn with coreutils 5.97 or use some 'magic' with perl etc as demonstrated over on ServerFault (serverfault.com/q/62411/60012)
            – N J
            Nov 12 '10 at 11:27






            2




            2




            OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
            – lapo
            Jan 13 '11 at 21:39




            OTOH if there is a big sub-sub-directory its bloat will show multiple time (for that dir and each parent dir) at the top of the results, and IMHO that distracts from the true bloat. Using "ncdu" suggested below could help with that, I'm gonna try it. =)
            – lapo
            Jan 13 '11 at 21:39




            2




            2




            I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
            – gabe.
            Feb 2 '11 at 4:48




            I find the -size option to "find" useful as well, as it lets you find all files under a certain. At least for GNU find, you can do something like: "find . -size +100M" to find files larger than 100M below the current directory.
            – gabe.
            Feb 2 '11 at 4:48













            79














            If you want a command-line tool, I prefer ncdu, an ncurses version of du. It scans the disk (or a given folder) and then shows the top-level space usages; you can select a given directory to get the corresponding summary for that directory, and go back without needing to reanalyze:



            Screenshot of ncdu





            If you're ok with a GUI program, Filelight is the closest thing to WinDirStat I've found; it shows a graphical view of space consumption:



            Screenshot of Filelight



            Like ncdu, Filelight lets you select a given directory to get the breakdown for that directory






            share|improve this answer



















            • 2




              don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
              – Janus Troelsen
              Sep 8 '16 at 11:51


















            79














            If you want a command-line tool, I prefer ncdu, an ncurses version of du. It scans the disk (or a given folder) and then shows the top-level space usages; you can select a given directory to get the corresponding summary for that directory, and go back without needing to reanalyze:



            Screenshot of ncdu





            If you're ok with a GUI program, Filelight is the closest thing to WinDirStat I've found; it shows a graphical view of space consumption:



            Screenshot of Filelight



            Like ncdu, Filelight lets you select a given directory to get the breakdown for that directory






            share|improve this answer



















            • 2




              don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
              – Janus Troelsen
              Sep 8 '16 at 11:51
















            79












            79








            79






            If you want a command-line tool, I prefer ncdu, an ncurses version of du. It scans the disk (or a given folder) and then shows the top-level space usages; you can select a given directory to get the corresponding summary for that directory, and go back without needing to reanalyze:



            Screenshot of ncdu





            If you're ok with a GUI program, Filelight is the closest thing to WinDirStat I've found; it shows a graphical view of space consumption:



            Screenshot of Filelight



            Like ncdu, Filelight lets you select a given directory to get the breakdown for that directory






            share|improve this answer














            If you want a command-line tool, I prefer ncdu, an ncurses version of du. It scans the disk (or a given folder) and then shows the top-level space usages; you can select a given directory to get the corresponding summary for that directory, and go back without needing to reanalyze:



            Screenshot of ncdu





            If you're ok with a GUI program, Filelight is the closest thing to WinDirStat I've found; it shows a graphical view of space consumption:



            Screenshot of Filelight



            Like ncdu, Filelight lets you select a given directory to get the breakdown for that directory







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited Apr 2 '17 at 22:11









            Stephen Rauch

            3,328101428




            3,328101428










            answered Nov 12 '10 at 6:35









            Michael MrozekMichael Mrozek

            60.7k29187208




            60.7k29187208








            • 2




              don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
              – Janus Troelsen
              Sep 8 '16 at 11:51
















            • 2




              don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
              – Janus Troelsen
              Sep 8 '16 at 11:51










            2




            2




            don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
            – Janus Troelsen
            Sep 8 '16 at 11:51






            don't you think QDirStat is closer to WinDirStat?
            – Janus Troelsen
            Sep 8 '16 at 11:51













            33














            You should be aware that WinDirStat is actually a port of KDirStat, which is a Linux/KDE program. So, if you are looking for a Linux alternative to WinDirStat, you certainly should take a look at KDirStat. It is already packaged in most distros, just install it.



            Another alternative is FileLight, already cited by Michael Mrozek, and the Konqueror plugin fsview (you can run it standalone from the command-line).






            share|improve this answer



















            • 14




              Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
              – Michael Mrozek
              Nov 13 '10 at 3:27






            • 2




              @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
              – David Oneill
              Nov 16 '10 at 20:36






            • 2




              Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
              – y3sh
              May 17 '18 at 13:26










            • or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
              – y3sh
              Nov 29 '18 at 21:32
















            33














            You should be aware that WinDirStat is actually a port of KDirStat, which is a Linux/KDE program. So, if you are looking for a Linux alternative to WinDirStat, you certainly should take a look at KDirStat. It is already packaged in most distros, just install it.



            Another alternative is FileLight, already cited by Michael Mrozek, and the Konqueror plugin fsview (you can run it standalone from the command-line).






            share|improve this answer



















            • 14




              Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
              – Michael Mrozek
              Nov 13 '10 at 3:27






            • 2




              @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
              – David Oneill
              Nov 16 '10 at 20:36






            • 2




              Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
              – y3sh
              May 17 '18 at 13:26










            • or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
              – y3sh
              Nov 29 '18 at 21:32














            33












            33








            33






            You should be aware that WinDirStat is actually a port of KDirStat, which is a Linux/KDE program. So, if you are looking for a Linux alternative to WinDirStat, you certainly should take a look at KDirStat. It is already packaged in most distros, just install it.



            Another alternative is FileLight, already cited by Michael Mrozek, and the Konqueror plugin fsview (you can run it standalone from the command-line).






            share|improve this answer














            You should be aware that WinDirStat is actually a port of KDirStat, which is a Linux/KDE program. So, if you are looking for a Linux alternative to WinDirStat, you certainly should take a look at KDirStat. It is already packaged in most distros, just install it.



            Another alternative is FileLight, already cited by Michael Mrozek, and the Konqueror plugin fsview (you can run it standalone from the command-line).







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited Aug 4 '18 at 20:24









            Ted Pudlik

            1033




            1033










            answered Nov 12 '10 at 20:25









            JulianoJuliano

            1,9131220




            1,9131220








            • 14




              Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
              – Michael Mrozek
              Nov 13 '10 at 3:27






            • 2




              @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
              – David Oneill
              Nov 16 '10 at 20:36






            • 2




              Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
              – y3sh
              May 17 '18 at 13:26










            • or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
              – y3sh
              Nov 29 '18 at 21:32














            • 14




              Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
              – Michael Mrozek
              Nov 13 '10 at 3:27






            • 2




              @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
              – David Oneill
              Nov 16 '10 at 20:36






            • 2




              Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
              – y3sh
              May 17 '18 at 13:26










            • or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
              – y3sh
              Nov 29 '18 at 21:32








            14




            14




            Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
            – Michael Mrozek
            Nov 13 '10 at 3:27




            Wow, I never realized that (I guess "Win" in the name should've been a giveaway). A coworker once asked me if there was a Linux version of WinSCP; I died inside a little
            – Michael Mrozek
            Nov 13 '10 at 3:27




            2




            2




            @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
            – David Oneill
            Nov 16 '10 at 20:36




            @previous comment. ouch. Just ouch.
            – David Oneill
            Nov 16 '10 at 20:36




            2




            2




            Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
            – y3sh
            May 17 '18 at 13:26




            Note that it will be called K4DirStat for Ubuntu if installing via software center
            – y3sh
            May 17 '18 at 13:26












            or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
            – y3sh
            Nov 29 '18 at 21:32




            or sudo apt-get install k4dirstat
            – y3sh
            Nov 29 '18 at 21:32











            29














            Another GUI program is: baobab



            alt text






            share|improve this answer





















            • In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
              – phunehehe
              Dec 27 '10 at 4:09










            • It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
              – golimar
              Aug 13 '18 at 10:26


















            29














            Another GUI program is: baobab



            alt text






            share|improve this answer





















            • In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
              – phunehehe
              Dec 27 '10 at 4:09










            • It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
              – golimar
              Aug 13 '18 at 10:26
















            29












            29








            29






            Another GUI program is: baobab



            alt text






            share|improve this answer












            Another GUI program is: baobab



            alt text







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered Nov 12 '10 at 9:28









            sudobashsudobash

            51646




            51646












            • In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
              – phunehehe
              Dec 27 '10 at 4:09










            • It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
              – golimar
              Aug 13 '18 at 10:26




















            • In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
              – phunehehe
              Dec 27 '10 at 4:09










            • It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
              – golimar
              Aug 13 '18 at 10:26


















            In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
            – phunehehe
            Dec 27 '10 at 4:09




            In deed, if I'm on Ubuntu I won't bother to look for any alternative. baobap is just enough.
            – phunehehe
            Dec 27 '10 at 4:09












            It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
            – golimar
            Aug 13 '18 at 10:26






            It also shows number of files, which sometimes needs to be checked as well as disk space
            – golimar
            Aug 13 '18 at 10:26













            8














            Use QDirStat (formerly KDirStat).



            It includes a perl script that generates a cache file on the server/console without any need for an UI to be running/installed; transfer it to your desktop machine and view it in the gui client.



            See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/256516/186308 for details.






            share|improve this answer























            • it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
              – Blauhirn
              May 17 '18 at 20:17
















            8














            Use QDirStat (formerly KDirStat).



            It includes a perl script that generates a cache file on the server/console without any need for an UI to be running/installed; transfer it to your desktop machine and view it in the gui client.



            See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/256516/186308 for details.






            share|improve this answer























            • it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
              – Blauhirn
              May 17 '18 at 20:17














            8












            8








            8






            Use QDirStat (formerly KDirStat).



            It includes a perl script that generates a cache file on the server/console without any need for an UI to be running/installed; transfer it to your desktop machine and view it in the gui client.



            See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/256516/186308 for details.






            share|improve this answer














            Use QDirStat (formerly KDirStat).



            It includes a perl script that generates a cache file on the server/console without any need for an UI to be running/installed; transfer it to your desktop machine and view it in the gui client.



            See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/256516/186308 for details.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36









            Community

            1




            1










            answered Aug 24 '16 at 12:21









            icyerasoricyerasor

            18113




            18113












            • it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
              – Blauhirn
              May 17 '18 at 20:17


















            • it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
              – Blauhirn
              May 17 '18 at 20:17
















            it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
            – Blauhirn
            May 17 '18 at 20:17




            it is ridiculously fast. very nice tool
            – Blauhirn
            May 17 '18 at 20:17











            6














            There's also this cool python script from /www.vrplumber.com/programming/runsnakerun/



            bzr branch lp:~mcfletch/squaremap/trunk squaremap



            It's not the most feature rich, but it's run from a single python script so it's extremely portable.



            alt text






            share|improve this answer


























              6














              There's also this cool python script from /www.vrplumber.com/programming/runsnakerun/



              bzr branch lp:~mcfletch/squaremap/trunk squaremap



              It's not the most feature rich, but it's run from a single python script so it's extremely portable.



              alt text






              share|improve this answer
























                6












                6








                6






                There's also this cool python script from /www.vrplumber.com/programming/runsnakerun/



                bzr branch lp:~mcfletch/squaremap/trunk squaremap



                It's not the most feature rich, but it's run from a single python script so it's extremely portable.



                alt text






                share|improve this answer












                There's also this cool python script from /www.vrplumber.com/programming/runsnakerun/



                bzr branch lp:~mcfletch/squaremap/trunk squaremap



                It's not the most feature rich, but it's run from a single python script so it's extremely portable.



                alt text







                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered Nov 12 '10 at 17:21









                FalmarriFalmarri

                4,852134462




                4,852134462























                    6














                    If you looked at the about screen on windirstat it showed you that it's based on kdirstat.



                    http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/






                    share|improve this answer





















                    • I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                      – Volker Siegel
                      Aug 28 '14 at 9:09
















                    6














                    If you looked at the about screen on windirstat it showed you that it's based on kdirstat.



                    http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/






                    share|improve this answer





















                    • I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                      – Volker Siegel
                      Aug 28 '14 at 9:09














                    6












                    6








                    6






                    If you looked at the about screen on windirstat it showed you that it's based on kdirstat.



                    http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/






                    share|improve this answer












                    If you looked at the about screen on windirstat it showed you that it's based on kdirstat.



                    http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered Aug 28 '14 at 8:25









                    DF1eCHDF1eCH

                    6111




                    6111












                    • I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                      – Volker Siegel
                      Aug 28 '14 at 9:09


















                    • I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                      – Volker Siegel
                      Aug 28 '14 at 9:09
















                    I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                    – Volker Siegel
                    Aug 28 '14 at 9:09




                    I like the answer - but could you add some context or details?
                    – Volker Siegel
                    Aug 28 '14 at 9:09











                    5














                    I prefer the following command line:



                    $  du -s -m -x * | sort -n


                    Breaking it down, du shows disk usage; -s says print the total for each argument (each item in the current directory), -m says show the size in Megabytes. This makes it easier for sort to work; sort doesn't really understand the -h output. The -x ignores other filesystems; this is useful when trying to find space hogs in /var, and /var/spool/foo is a different filesystem.






                    share|improve this answer























                    • Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                      – muru
                      Dec 3 '14 at 13:53










                    • Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                      – P Joslin
                      Dec 3 '14 at 20:43










                    • Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                      – John Eisbrener
                      Oct 13 '16 at 14:06
















                    5














                    I prefer the following command line:



                    $  du -s -m -x * | sort -n


                    Breaking it down, du shows disk usage; -s says print the total for each argument (each item in the current directory), -m says show the size in Megabytes. This makes it easier for sort to work; sort doesn't really understand the -h output. The -x ignores other filesystems; this is useful when trying to find space hogs in /var, and /var/spool/foo is a different filesystem.






                    share|improve this answer























                    • Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                      – muru
                      Dec 3 '14 at 13:53










                    • Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                      – P Joslin
                      Dec 3 '14 at 20:43










                    • Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                      – John Eisbrener
                      Oct 13 '16 at 14:06














                    5












                    5








                    5






                    I prefer the following command line:



                    $  du -s -m -x * | sort -n


                    Breaking it down, du shows disk usage; -s says print the total for each argument (each item in the current directory), -m says show the size in Megabytes. This makes it easier for sort to work; sort doesn't really understand the -h output. The -x ignores other filesystems; this is useful when trying to find space hogs in /var, and /var/spool/foo is a different filesystem.






                    share|improve this answer














                    I prefer the following command line:



                    $  du -s -m -x * | sort -n


                    Breaking it down, du shows disk usage; -s says print the total for each argument (each item in the current directory), -m says show the size in Megabytes. This makes it easier for sort to work; sort doesn't really understand the -h output. The -x ignores other filesystems; this is useful when trying to find space hogs in /var, and /var/spool/foo is a different filesystem.







                    share|improve this answer














                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer








                    edited Dec 3 '14 at 13:52









                    HalosGhost

                    3,72592236




                    3,72592236










                    answered Dec 3 '14 at 13:36









                    P JoslinP Joslin

                    5112




                    5112












                    • Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                      – muru
                      Dec 3 '14 at 13:53










                    • Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                      – P Joslin
                      Dec 3 '14 at 20:43










                    • Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                      – John Eisbrener
                      Oct 13 '16 at 14:06


















                    • Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                      – muru
                      Dec 3 '14 at 13:53










                    • Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                      – P Joslin
                      Dec 3 '14 at 20:43










                    • Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                      – John Eisbrener
                      Oct 13 '16 at 14:06
















                    Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                    – muru
                    Dec 3 '14 at 13:53




                    Doesn't the top answer already use du?
                    – muru
                    Dec 3 '14 at 13:53












                    Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                    – P Joslin
                    Dec 3 '14 at 20:43




                    Yes, but du /home on my systems returns tens of thousands of files; I rarely care what the (say) 100 largest of those files are; I typically want to know which subdirectories are taking up the most space.
                    – P Joslin
                    Dec 3 '14 at 20:43












                    Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                    – John Eisbrener
                    Oct 13 '16 at 14:06




                    Instead of -s, I specified --max-depth=2, as I wanted to go one directory down from the root directory, but your answer pointed me in that direction. Thanks!
                    – John Eisbrener
                    Oct 13 '16 at 14:06











                    4














                    You could also try GD Map, another GUI tool based on treemaps.








                    share|improve this answer




























                      4














                      You could also try GD Map, another GUI tool based on treemaps.








                      share|improve this answer


























                        4












                        4








                        4






                        You could also try GD Map, another GUI tool based on treemaps.








                        share|improve this answer














                        You could also try GD Map, another GUI tool based on treemaps.









                        share|improve this answer














                        share|improve this answer



                        share|improve this answer








                        edited Dec 30 '18 at 1:09









                        Glorfindel

                        2271310




                        2271310










                        answered Nov 13 '10 at 0:52









                        BrunoBruno

                        7811918




                        7811918























                            2














                            xdiskusage is very flexible, lightweight with very lean dependencies, easy to compile..



                            It shows a tree left-to-right that you can navigate with mouse or arrow keys, zoom in (click or enter), hide some parts for a better view, change sort order, number of colors etc with keys or context menu.



                            It's so lighweight that you can use it on a remote SSH link with good performance. In this case I recommend -q command line option to disable the progress bar that appears while files are walked.



                            You can also optionally run du yourself beforehand.



                            One situation is a remote filesystem which is full or near-full. On that system run du -ak | gzip >log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz, fetch the output and run gzip -dc log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz | xdiskusage -aq locally.

                            Or even ssh myremotesystem "cd /filesystem_near_full/ ; du -ak | gzip" > log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz to store the result locally without writing anything remotely.



                            xdiskusage does not offer to modify the filesystem (like move to trash, etc) but you can copy a path to clipboard and paste that into a file manager, terminal etc.



                            xdiskusage screenshot






                            share|improve this answer


























                              2














                              xdiskusage is very flexible, lightweight with very lean dependencies, easy to compile..



                              It shows a tree left-to-right that you can navigate with mouse or arrow keys, zoom in (click or enter), hide some parts for a better view, change sort order, number of colors etc with keys or context menu.



                              It's so lighweight that you can use it on a remote SSH link with good performance. In this case I recommend -q command line option to disable the progress bar that appears while files are walked.



                              You can also optionally run du yourself beforehand.



                              One situation is a remote filesystem which is full or near-full. On that system run du -ak | gzip >log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz, fetch the output and run gzip -dc log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz | xdiskusage -aq locally.

                              Or even ssh myremotesystem "cd /filesystem_near_full/ ; du -ak | gzip" > log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz to store the result locally without writing anything remotely.



                              xdiskusage does not offer to modify the filesystem (like move to trash, etc) but you can copy a path to clipboard and paste that into a file manager, terminal etc.



                              xdiskusage screenshot






                              share|improve this answer
























                                2












                                2








                                2






                                xdiskusage is very flexible, lightweight with very lean dependencies, easy to compile..



                                It shows a tree left-to-right that you can navigate with mouse or arrow keys, zoom in (click or enter), hide some parts for a better view, change sort order, number of colors etc with keys or context menu.



                                It's so lighweight that you can use it on a remote SSH link with good performance. In this case I recommend -q command line option to disable the progress bar that appears while files are walked.



                                You can also optionally run du yourself beforehand.



                                One situation is a remote filesystem which is full or near-full. On that system run du -ak | gzip >log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz, fetch the output and run gzip -dc log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz | xdiskusage -aq locally.

                                Or even ssh myremotesystem "cd /filesystem_near_full/ ; du -ak | gzip" > log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz to store the result locally without writing anything remotely.



                                xdiskusage does not offer to modify the filesystem (like move to trash, etc) but you can copy a path to clipboard and paste that into a file manager, terminal etc.



                                xdiskusage screenshot






                                share|improve this answer












                                xdiskusage is very flexible, lightweight with very lean dependencies, easy to compile..



                                It shows a tree left-to-right that you can navigate with mouse or arrow keys, zoom in (click or enter), hide some parts for a better view, change sort order, number of colors etc with keys or context menu.



                                It's so lighweight that you can use it on a remote SSH link with good performance. In this case I recommend -q command line option to disable the progress bar that appears while files are walked.



                                You can also optionally run du yourself beforehand.



                                One situation is a remote filesystem which is full or near-full. On that system run du -ak | gzip >log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz, fetch the output and run gzip -dc log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz | xdiskusage -aq locally.

                                Or even ssh myremotesystem "cd /filesystem_near_full/ ; du -ak | gzip" > log_of_disk_usage.txt.gz to store the result locally without writing anything remotely.



                                xdiskusage does not offer to modify the filesystem (like move to trash, etc) but you can copy a path to clipboard and paste that into a file manager, terminal etc.



                                xdiskusage screenshot







                                share|improve this answer












                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer










                                answered Jun 17 '17 at 19:54









                                Stéphane GourichonStéphane Gourichon

                                428313




                                428313























                                    1














                                    I have recently used command line tool (CLI, not TUI): http://zevv.nl/play/code/philesight/



                                    It produces a PNG file which you can view somewhere else. It also has a CGI script.



                                    Most likely you are not limited to text mode at your local workstation, so it should be appropriate.






                                    share|improve this answer


























                                      1














                                      I have recently used command line tool (CLI, not TUI): http://zevv.nl/play/code/philesight/



                                      It produces a PNG file which you can view somewhere else. It also has a CGI script.



                                      Most likely you are not limited to text mode at your local workstation, so it should be appropriate.






                                      share|improve this answer
























                                        1












                                        1








                                        1






                                        I have recently used command line tool (CLI, not TUI): http://zevv.nl/play/code/philesight/



                                        It produces a PNG file which you can view somewhere else. It also has a CGI script.



                                        Most likely you are not limited to text mode at your local workstation, so it should be appropriate.






                                        share|improve this answer












                                        I have recently used command line tool (CLI, not TUI): http://zevv.nl/play/code/philesight/



                                        It produces a PNG file which you can view somewhere else. It also has a CGI script.



                                        Most likely you are not limited to text mode at your local workstation, so it should be appropriate.







                                        share|improve this answer












                                        share|improve this answer



                                        share|improve this answer










                                        answered Jul 22 '13 at 13:41









                                        OCTAGRAMOCTAGRAM

                                        1112




                                        1112























                                            1














                                            Also to see the files in a specific directory sorted by size after you have found the directory using du use:



                                            ls -lrSh





                                            share|improve this answer


























                                              1














                                              Also to see the files in a specific directory sorted by size after you have found the directory using du use:



                                              ls -lrSh





                                              share|improve this answer
























                                                1












                                                1








                                                1






                                                Also to see the files in a specific directory sorted by size after you have found the directory using du use:



                                                ls -lrSh





                                                share|improve this answer












                                                Also to see the files in a specific directory sorted by size after you have found the directory using du use:



                                                ls -lrSh






                                                share|improve this answer












                                                share|improve this answer



                                                share|improve this answer










                                                answered Apr 25 '15 at 18:37









                                                WodinWodin

                                                24114




                                                24114






























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