Check Disk Space with the Commands du and df - Linux
Linux (and Typically all UNIX based or UNIX alike systems including AIX, Solaris, MAc or CentOS) offertwo commands for checking out free disk space.
Now this is a quick post that I call it (Don't know how I missed it till now. Posting on request of an anonymous user)
1. Linux "df" command :
Report file system disk space usage. That is, it shows information about the file system on which each FILE resides, or all file systems by default.
Syntax: df [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-a, --all include dummy file systems
-B, --block-size=SIZE use SIZE-byte blocks
-h, --human-readable print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
-H, --si likewise, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
-i, --inodes list inode information instead of block usage
-k like --block-size=1K
-l, --local limit listing to local file systems
--no-sync do not invoke sync before getting usage info (default)
-P, --portability use the POSIX output format
--sync invoke sync before getting usage info
-t, --type=TYPE limit listing to file systems of type TYPE
-T, --print-type print file system type
-x, --exclude-type=TYPE limit listing to file systems not of type TYPE
-v (ignored)
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
SIZE may be (or may be an integer optionally followed by) one of following:
kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y.
EG. I am in a directory. But "df" command has nothing to deal with that. It outputs current OVERALL status of the system and its partitions.
2. Linux "du" command :
Estimate file space usage. That is, it summarize disk usage of each FILE, recursively for directories.
Syntax: du [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-a, --all write counts for all files, not just directories
--apparent-size print apparent sizes, rather than disk usage; although
the apparent size is usually smaller, it may be
larger due to holes in (`sparse') files, internal
fragmentation, indirect blocks, and the like
-B, --block-size=SIZE use SIZE-byte blocks
-b, --bytes equivalent to `--apparent-size --block-size=1'
-c, --total produce a grand total
-D, --dereference-args dereference only symlinks that are listed on the
command line
--files0-from=F summarize disk usage of the NUL-terminated file
names specified in file F
-H like --si, but also evokes a warning; will soon
change to be equivalent to --dereference-args (-D)
-h, --human-readable print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
--si like -h, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
-k like --block-size=1K
-l, --count-links count sizes many times if hard linked
-m like --block-size=1M
-L, --dereference dereference all symbolic links
-P, --no-dereference don't follow any symbolic links (this is the default)
-0, --null end each output line with 0 byte rather than newline
-S, --separate-dirs do not include size of subdirectories
-s, --summarize display only a total for each argument
-x, --one-file-system skip directories on different file systems
-X FILE, --exclude-from=FILE Exclude files that match any pattern in FILE.
--exclude=PATTERN Exclude files that match PATTERN.
--max-depth=N print the total for a directory (or file, with --all)
only if it is N or fewer levels below the command
line argument; --max-depth=0 is the same as
--summarize
--time show time of the last modification of any file in the
directory, or any of its subdirectories
--time=WORD show time as WORD instead of modification time:
atime, access, use, ctime or status
--time-style=STYLE show times using style STYLE:
full-iso, long-iso, iso, +FORMAT
FORMAT is interpreted like `date'
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
SIZE may be (or may be an integer optionally followed by) one of following:
kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y.
EG. I am in a directory. The "du" command tells about that directory. For eg. the following picture directly outputs the total size of that folder.
Hope this acts like a quick guide to men and women trying to play with Linux and other UNIX alike systems.
Cheers :)
Just to add more: Remember 3 important commands when you are sitting on a linux, solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, or Mac Box [Huh, enuff. Just remember Unix :) ]
1. df
df command can get how much space is occupied and how much available space
2. du
du is the abbreviation of “disk usage”, this command will progressively into each subdirectory
3. fdisk
fdisk can be used to manage disk partitions. One can do tasks like create new partition or delete an existing partition