NAME

du − summarize disk usage

SYNOPSIS

du [ −p ] [ −l ] [ −s ] [ −a ] [ name ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Du gives the number of kilobytes contained in all files and, recursively, directories within each specified directory or file name. If name is missing, ‘.’ is used. 

A file that’s the target of links is normally counted once, in the first directory that is traversed.  The −p option changes this accounting to spread the file across all of its directories by causing only 1/nth of the file to be counted per occurrence in a directory, where n is the number of references to the file. 

The −l option restricts searches to the file system containing name.  The −s option causes only the grand total to be given.  The −a option causes an entry to be generated for each file.  If neither −s or −a is specified, an entry is generated for each directory only. 

SEE ALSO

df(1), quot(8)

BUGS

Unless the −a option is specified, du ignores non-directory names. 

If there are too many distinct linked files, du counts the excess files multiply. 

If multiple names are specified, then du forks a separate process to handle each additional one.  Because these processes don’t share information, linked files might be counted more than once.  For example, you can get different information from ‘du ∗’ than from ‘du .’. 

7th Edition  —  April 29, 1985