NAME

du − summarize disk usage

SYNOPSIS

du [−aemrs] [name ...]

DESCRIPTION

The du command reports the number of blocks contained in all files and (recursively) directories within each directory and file specified.  The block count includes the indirect blocks of the file.  If no names are given, the current directory is used. 

The optional arguments are as follows:

−a causes an output line to be generated for each file. 

If neither −s or −a is specified, an output line is generated for each directory only. 

−e causes an du to exit with a return code of 3 if it was not possible to account for every multi-linked file. 

−m causes du to only search the file system containing the argument file. 

−r will cause du to generate messages about directories that cannot be be read, files that cannot be opened, etc., rather than being silent (the default). 

−s causes only the grand total (for each of the specified names) to be given. 

A file with two or more links is only counted once. 

NOTES

If the −a option is not used, non-directories given as arguments are not listed. 

If there are links between files in different directories where the directories are on separate branches of the file system hierarchy, du will count the excess files more than once. 

Files with holes in them will get an incorrect block count. 

  —  Essential Utilities