directory size [solved]

[satelliteuser083]

Could someone tell me how to get a list of the directories (if that's the correct linux-term :unsure: ) on a partition, including the size of each (directory)? I'm pretty sure that it's a simple command, but I'm d.. ..d if I can find it . Thanks.

Edited December 11, 2007 by satelliteuser083

[neddie]

du

Or for a pretty graphical view:

filelight

[ianw1974]

I tend to do this:

 

du -sh `ls`

 

what it will do is parse the directory listing and give you the summary size for each one. Really handy, if you want to narrow down where all the space has gone. In my case, it's usually always my /home/ian/Downloads directory :)

 

ian@esprit ~ $ du -sh `ls` 
0	   Desktop
36M	 Documents
26G	 Downloads
0	   Music
103M	Pictures
0	   Videos
0	   bin
0	   vmware

[satelliteuser083]

Many thanks to you both, I KNEW that it was simple B) . I've discoved that /tmp has over 1GB in it, including, for example,

 54e84e95.tmp/
6a1c624a.tmp/
7ddc03bb.tmp/
a901faf1.tmp/
plugtmp-1/
..
..
plugtmp-48/

Is it safe to delete the contents of this directory, or some parts of it?

Thanks

[spinynorman]

In the MCC, go to Set Up Boot System; select the Advanced tab; select 'Clean /tmp at each boot'. :)

[satelliteuser083]

I'm afraid I can't find "Set Up Boot System" in my MCC (mva 2006), but the message is clear. Many thanks.

[spinynorman]

I'm afraid I can't find "Set Up Boot System" in my MCC (mva 2006), but the message is clear. Many thanks.

According to the 2006 documentation, it's Boot loader; select the Advanced button; select 'Clean /tmp at each boot'. :)

[satelliteuser083]

According to the 2006 documentation, it's Boot loader; select the Advanced button; select 'Clean /tmp at each boot'. :)

 

You're quite right :D Many thanks again.

[theYinYeti]

One command I use a lot is

du -ks * | sort -n

This sorts the items of the directory you're in, based on their sizes.

 

Yves.

[AussieJohn]

The key advantages in using Filelight is you do NOT have to use the cli to do what you are seeking and especially it gives you a valuable visual comparison of Directorys and folders in relation to oneanother in terms of size and placement. It is much more helpful in my opinion to newbies or not so newbies. I have tried the cli methods suggested and found it barely helpful.

 

Cheers. John.

[scarecrow]

Krusader?

It does a zillion things, including directory listing...

Actually this filemanager is the only reason I prefer KDE to XFCE4.

Edited December 18, 2007 by scarecrow

[theYinYeti]

Another vote for Filelight. It is an awesome tool.

 

Yves.

[neddie]

Incidentally I use Filelight for other stuff too, not just file sizes.

I put my website stats through it, to show where the most hits are (in the tree of directories of the website) where the angles represent number of hits instead of file size. And the other week we wanted to do some profiling of a program (measuring the time taken in each method call where methods were calling other methods in a tree) and used Filelight for visualizing that too - the angles then represented time taken inside each method. B)

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Even though I am more of a cli guy, I installed and ran filelight because of the recommendations in this thread and I am amazed at how easy it makes it for me to quickly clean up a bunch of garbage that was using a ton of space. Thanks, guys.

Edited December 20, 2007 by Steve Scrimpshire

[satelliteuser083]

I tend to do this:

 

du -sh `ls`

 

what it will do is parse the directory listing and give you the summary size for each one. Really handy, if you want to narrow down where all the space has gone. In my case, it's usually always my /home/ian/Downloads directory :)

 

ian@esprit ~ $ du -sh `ls` 
0	   Desktop
36M	 Documents
26G	 Downloads
0	   Music
103M	Pictures
0	   Videos
0	   bin
0	   vmware

 

The cli which you provided, i.e.

du -sh `ls`

, also lists all the files on the partition, whereas I only want a summary of the directories. Is there an option to do this; haven't been able to find it myself? :unsure:

Edited December 31, 2007 by satelliteuser083