du(1) User Commands du(1)
NAME
du - estimate file space usage
SYNOPSIS
du [OPTION]... [FILE]...
du [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
DESCRIPTION
Summarize device usage of the set of FILEs, recursively for
directories.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options
too.
-0, --null
end each output line with NUL, not newline
-a, --all
write counts for all files, not just directories
-A, --apparent-size
print apparent sizes rather than device usage; although the
apparent size is usually smaller, it may be larger due to holes
in ('sparse') files, internal fragmentation, indirect blocks,
etc.
-B, --block-size=SIZE
scale sizes by SIZE before printing them; See SIZE format below;
E.g., '-BM' prints sizes in units of 1,048,576 bytes
-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
-d, --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
--files0-from=F
summarize device usage of the NUL-terminated file names
specified in file F; if F is -, read names from standard input
-H equivalent to --dereference-args (-D)
-h, --human-readable
print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
--inodes
list inode usage information instead of block usage
-k like --block-size=1K
-L, --dereference
dereference all symbolic links
-l, --count-links
count sizes many times if hard linked
-m like --block-size=1M
-P, --no-dereference
don't follow any symbolic links (this is the default)
-S, --separate-dirs
for directories do not include size of subdirectories
--si like -h, but use powers of 1000 not 1024
-s, --summarize
display only a total for each argument
-t, --threshold=SIZE
exclude entries smaller than SIZE if positive, or entries
greater than SIZE if negative
--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
time/date format with --time; see TIME_STYLE below
-X, --exclude-from=FILE
exclude files that match any pattern in FILE
--exclude=PATTERN
exclude files that match PATTERN
-x, --one-file-system
skip directories on different file systems
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
Display values are in units of the first available SIZE from
--block-size, and the DU_BLOCK_SIZE, BLOCK_SIZE and BLOCKSIZE
environment variables. Otherwise, units default to 1024 bytes (or 512
if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set).
The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is
10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,...
(powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and
so on.
The --time-style STYLE argument can be full-iso, long-iso, iso, or
+FORMAT. FORMAT is interpreted like in date(1). Also the TIME_STYLE
environment variable sets the default style to use.
PATTERNS
PATTERN is a shell pattern (not a regular expression). The pattern ?
matches any one character, whereas * matches any string (composed of
zero, one or multiple characters). For example, *.o will match any
files whose names end in .o. Therefore, the command
du --exclude='*.o'
will skip all files and subdirectories ending in .o (including the file
.o itself).
AUTHOR
Written by Torbjorn Granlund, David MacKenzie, Paul Eggert, and Jim
Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/du>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) du invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 March 2026 du(1)
coreutils 9.10 - Generated Thu Apr 2 07:42:22 CDT 2026