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hawkeye
Asked: 2011-08-19 03:46:53 +0800 CST

How to list recursive file sizes of files and directories in a directory?

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How do I list all the files in a directory and their recursive file sizes?

---edit

I want to see the sizes 'rolled up' to the parent directories in the directory listed. I don't want to see the child directories or their contents or sizes.

files

11 Answers

  1. apt-get install ncdu

    enter image description here

    It is interactive too so if you want to check on a sub folder just UP, DOWN, and Enter to it.

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  2. Best Answer

    I guess the easiest way is by typing ls -l, or ls -lh which will provide the file size in human-readable format (KB, MB, etc).

    If 'recursively' means listing all the subsequent folders, e.g.:

    /foo/
    /foo/bar/ ....

    Then you should also add parameter R, like ls -lR or ls -lhR

    More information for ls can be found by typing man ls

    Update:

    The following command as Lekensteyn proposed will probably do the job:

    du -h --max-depth=1 <folder>

    -h is for human-readable
    --apparent-size is another way to display sizes as already stated
    --max-depth is the level of subfolders you want to go down to.

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  3. To get the total size of a directory and all children

    du -hs directory/*
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  4. Also check out tree. It is not installed by default but is the repositories.

    Example:

    richard@legend:~$ tree Applications/ -s
Applications/
├── [           4096]  AlexFTPS-1.0.2
│   ├── [      31232]  AlexPilotti.FTPS.Client.dll
│   ├── [     274432]  C5.dll
│   ├── [       1457]  C5-License
│   ├── [      35147]  COPYING
│   ├── [       7639]  COPYING.LESSER
│   ├── [         70]  ftps
│   ├── [      28672]  ftps.exe
│   ├── [      98304]  Plossum CommandLine.dll
│   ├── [       1557]  Plossum-License
│   └── [       2560]  README
└── [           4096]  src
    └── [     180849]  AlexFTPS_bin_1.0.2.zip

    More options can be found in the man page.

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  5. Since you don't specifically mention you need a terminal-based solution, I think baobab a.k.a. Disk Usage Analyzer is missing from the list.

    It is installed in Ubuntu by default and does exactly what you want in a nice graphical UI with the ability to drill down the directory hierarchy.

    Apart from displaying a list of directories with their sizes, it is also showing a rings or treemap chart of filesystem usage, which is extremely useful for visualising the directories which take up the most space.

    baobab the Disk Usage Analyzer

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  6. A terminal solution is the du command:

    du --all --human-readable --apparent-size

    (shorthand: du -ah --apparent-size)

    du displays the disk usage for each file and directory. The options explained:

    • --all, -a - show sizes for files as well, not just directories
    • --human-readable, -h - show sizes in a human readable format, e.g. 10K (10 kilobytes), 10 (10 bytes)
    • --apparent-size - show the actual file size, not the sizes as used by the disk.
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  7. This seems to do the trick when simlinks are involved.

    ls -LRlh
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  8. To get a sorted list put everything in MB and sort :

    du -m * | sort -n

    Or use tool such as DiskReport to generate a report of full disk tree.

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  9. Another terminal solution with find and sort (by filesize, column 1)

    $ find . -maxdepth 1 ! -path . -printf "%s %p\n" | sort -n -k1                              
178 ./somefile.txt
219 ./somefile2.txt
4096 ./c
4096 ./cs2
4096 ./perl
4096 ./python
4096 ./random
4096 ./sh
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  10. I like the following approach:

    du -schx .[!.]* * | sort -h

    where:

    • s: display only a total for each argument
    • c: produce a grand total
    • h: print sizes in a human-readable format
    • x: skip directories on different file systems
    • .[!.]* *: Summarize disk usage of each file, recursively for directories (including "hidden" ones)
    • | sort -h: Sort based on human-readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
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