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wim
Asked: 2013-05-21 18:49:57 +0800 CST

Display folder sizes in file manager

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In nautilus (or nemo) file manager, the "Size" column shows the filesize for files and the number of items contained in a folder for subdirectories:

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Number of items is not that important for me, it would be more useful if I could make this column show the total size contained under the directory. I had an extension on windows called foldersize which shows what I mean:

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I think it involved a service which ran in the background monitoring filesystem modifications in order to make sure the column was kept up to date.

I am interested to know if there is any similar extension to nautilus, I would also be open to switching to another file manager to get this functionality. I am aware of the Disk Usage Analyser in Ubuntu, but what I'm looking for is a solution with file manager integration.

nautilus

4 Answers

  1. Not sure if this will help as it's not exactly what you're looking for, but you can display the file size under the icon:

    1. Open the file explorer
    2. Go to places
    3. Select preferences
    4. Select display tab

    http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-tweak-nautilus-to-display-size-of-files-under-their-name.html

    However, this is probably a more direct answer to your question: Show current folder size in Nautilus

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  2. Always calculating the disk usage of a directory accurately (including hardlinks etc.) would slow you down, so it is not done. (With large directories I even have to wait quite a while to get the number of items.)

    If you want to analyze disk usage try gdmap or baobab. There are even more tools.

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  3. I found two tools!

    GUI: Double-Commander, will add the "deep" sizes if you hit Alt+Shift+Enter. Unfortunately, it's not sticky, need to be done again when you change to another folder :-(

    CLI only: vfn

    Alt+Z configures it to show deep folder sizes; AND it's sticky!

    It feels a little like ncdu, but with file management stuff too.

    A little counter-intuative on the UI front to me, (e for erase (rather than a delete), h for help; ? launches a sub-shell), but it does the job.

    vfu is the winner for me; I'll get used to the odd key-bindings!

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  4. Krusader will calculate the size of one or directories. This is very useful when you are trying to figure out how much data you can fit on a a CD or DVD data archive disk.

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