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Checking the size of files and directories in Linux with duThe du [-options] [file1 file2...]
To display the size of the file(s) in the most readable format for humans, use the "h" option: $ du -h img1.jpg
24K img1.jpg
$ du -h img1.jpg img2.jpg
24K img1.jpg
24K img2.jpg
Sometimes it is useful to display a total of the file sizes, for which the "c" option can be used: $ du -hc img1.jpg img2.jpg
24K img1.jpg
24K img2.jpg
48K total
The du command displays size information for each argument. If this includes directories, size information is also displayed for each subdirectory: $ du -h dir1
28K dir1/subdir1
56K dir1
$ du -hc dir1
28K dir1/subdir1
56K dir1
56K total
If there are a lot of subdirectories, this command may display more information than you want. To have the command summarize the size of each directory (so that it doesn't list the subdirectories individually) use the "s" option: $ du -hs dir1
56K dir1
$ du -hcs dir1
56K dir1
56K total
A simple way to display just the total without printing any of the arguments in the display is to pipe the output of $ du -hc *.jpg | grep total
348K total
This isn't a fullproof method because some of your files may include the word "total" in their names, but at least you will always see the total as the last line of output regardless. |