linux command to get size of files and directories present in a particular folder? [closed]

How can I see the size of files and directories in Linux? If use df -m, then it shows the size of all the directory at the top level, but, for the directories and files inside the directory, how do I check the size?

Solution 1:

Use ls command for files and du command for directories.

Checking File Sizes

ls -l filename   #Displays Size of the specified file
ls -l *          #Displays Size of All the files in the current directory
ls -al *         #Displays Size of All the files including hidden files in the current directory
ls -al dir/      #Displays Size of All the files including hidden files in the 'dir' directory

ls command will not list the actual size of directories(why?). Therefore, we use du for this purpose.

Checking Directory sizes

du -sh directory_name    #Gives you the summarized(-s) size of the directory in human readable(-h) format
du -bsh *                #Gives you the apparent(-b) summarized(-s) size of all the files and directories in the current directory in human readable(-h) format

Including -h option in any of the above commands (for Ex: ls -lh * or du -sh) will give you size in human readable format (kb, mb,gb, ...)

For more information see man ls and man du

Solution 2:

There is du command.

Size of a directory and/or file, in a human-friendly way:

$ du -sh .bashrc /tmp

I memorised it as a non-existent English word dush.

--apparent-size command line switch makes it measure apparent sizes (what ls shows) rather than actual disk usage.

Solution 3:

Use ls -s to list file size, or if you prefer ls -sh for human readable sizes.

For directories use du, and again, du -h for human readable sizes.

Solution 4:

You can use:

ls -lh

Using this command you'll see the apparent space of the directory and true space of the files and in details the names of the files displayed, besides the size and creation date of each.

Solution 5:

There is also a great ncdu utility - it can show directory size with detailed info about subfolders and files.

Installation

Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install ncdu

Usage

Just type ncdu [path] in the command line. After a few seconds for analyzing the path, you will see something like this:

$ ncdu 1.11 ~ Use the arrow keys to navigate, press ? for help
--- / ---------------------------------------------------------
.  96,1 GiB [##########] /home
.  17,7 GiB [#         ] /usr
.   4,5 GiB [          ] /var
    1,1 GiB [          ] /lib
  732,1 MiB [          ] /opt
. 275,6 MiB [          ] /boot
  198,0 MiB [          ] /storage
. 153,5 MiB [          ] /run
.  16,6 MiB [          ] /etc
   13,5 MiB [          ] /bin
   11,3 MiB [          ] /sbin
.   8,8 MiB [          ] /tmp
.   2,2 MiB [          ] /dev
!  16,0 KiB [          ] /lost+found
    8,0 KiB [          ] /media
    8,0 KiB [          ] /snap
    4,0 KiB [          ] /lib64
e   4,0 KiB [          ] /srv
!   4,0 KiB [          ] /root
e   4,0 KiB [          ] /mnt
e   4,0 KiB [          ] /cdrom
.   0,0   B [          ] /proc
.   0,0   B [          ] /sys
@   0,0   B [          ]  initrd.img.old
@   0,0   B [          ]  initrd.img
@   0,0   B [          ]  vmlinuz.old
@   0,0   B [          ]  vmlinuz

Delete the currently highlighted element with d, exit with CTRL + c