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DU(1) General Commands Manual DU(1) NAME du -- display disk usage statistics SYNOPSIS du [--libxo] [-Aclnx] [-H | -L | -P] [-g | -h | -k | -m | --si] [-a | -s | -d depth] [-B blocksize] [-I mask] [-t threshold] [file ...] DESCRIPTION The du utility displays the file system block usage for each file argument and for each directory in the file hierarchy rooted in each directory argu- ment. If no file is specified, the block usage of the hierarchy rooted in the current directory is displayed. Normally block usage closely resembles the file size, but this is not al- ways the case. For files with an incomplete last block, the size will be larger. The size includes any metadata such as indirect blocks, though not the inode. For sparse files or file systems that defer writing data to disk the count will be less than the file size. The options are as follows: --libxo Generate output via libxo(3) in a selection of different human and machine readable formats. See xo_options(7) for details on command line arguments. -A Display the apparent size instead of the disk usage. This can be helpful when operating on compressed volumes or sparse files. -B blocksize Calculate block counts in blocksize byte blocks. This is different from the -h, -k, -m, --si and -g options or setting BLOCKSIZE and gives an estimate of how much space the examined file hierarchy would require on a filesystem with the given blocksize. Unless in -A mode, blocksize is rounded up to the next multiple of 512. -H Symbolic links on the command line are followed, symbolic links in file hierarchies are not followed. -I mask Ignore files and directories matching the specified mask. -L Symbolic links on the command line and in file hierarchies are fol- lowed. -P No symbolic links are followed. This is the default. -a Display an entry for each file in a file hierarchy. -c Display a grand total. -d depth Display an entry for all files and directories depth directories deep. -g Display block counts in 1073741824-byte (1 GiB) blocks. -h "Human-readable" output. Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte and Petabyte based on powers of 1024. --si "Human-readable" output. Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte and Petabyte based on powers of 1000. -k Display block counts in 1024-byte (1 kiB) blocks. -l If a file has multiple hard links, count its size multiple times. The default behavior of du is to count files with multiple hard links only once. When the -l option is specified, the hard link checks are disabled, and these files are counted (and displayed) as many times as they are found. -m Display block counts in 1048576-byte (1 MiB) blocks. -n Ignore files and directories with user "nodump" flag (UF_NODUMP) set. -r Generate messages about directories that cannot be read, files that cannot be opened, and so on. This is the default case. This op- tion exists solely for conformance with X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 ("XPG4"). -s Display an entry for each specified file. (Equivalent to -d 0) --si "Human-readable" output. Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte and Petabyte based on powers of 1000. -t threshold Display only entries for which size exceeds threshold. If threshold is negative, display only entries for which size is less than the absolute value of threshold. -x File system mount points are not traversed. The du utility counts the storage used by symbolic links and not the files they reference unless the -H or -L option is specified. If either the -H or -L option is specified, storage used by any symbolic links which are followed is not counted (or displayed). The -H, -L and -P options override each other and the command's actions are determined by the last one speci- fied. The -h, -k, -m and --si options all override each other; the last one spec- ified determines the block counts used. If du receives a SIGINFO (see the status argument for stty(1)) signal, the current file will be written to the standard error output. ENVIRONMENT BLOCKSIZE If the environment variable BLOCKSIZE is set, and the -h, -k, -m or --si options are not specified, the block counts will be dis- played in units of that block size. If BLOCKSIZE is not set, and the -h, -k, -m or --si options are not specified, the block counts will be displayed in 512-byte blocks. EXAMPLES Show disk usage for all files in the current directory. Output is in hu- man-readable form: # du -ah Summarize disk usage in the current directory: # du -hs Summarize disk usage for a specific directory: # du -hs /home Show name and size of all C files in a specific directory. Also display a grand total at the end: # du -ch /usr/src/sys/kern/*.c SEE ALSO df(1), chflags(2), fts(3), libxo(3), symlink(7), xo_options(7), quot(8) STANDARDS The du utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1") spec- ification. The flags [-ABIPcdghlmnt], [--libxo], [--si], as well as the BLOCKSIZE en- vironment variable, are extensions to that specification. The flag [-r] is accepted but ignored, for compatibility with systems im- plementing the obsolete X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 ("XCU5") standard. HISTORY The du utility and its -a and -s options first appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX. The -r option first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX and is available since FreeBSD 3.5. The -k and -x options first appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno and -H in 4.4BSD. The -c and -L options first appeared in the GNU fileutils; -L and -P are available since 4.4BSD Lite1, -c since FreeBSD 2.2.6. The -d option first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2, -h first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0. AUTHORS This version of du was written by Chris Newcomb for 4.3BSD-Reno in 1989. FreeBSD 16.0 CURRENT August 7, 2026 DU(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY | AUTHORS
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