How to know the size of a folder via Ubuntu terminal?

Introduction

The Ubuntu terminal is a powerful tool that allows users to interact with their computer through text commands. While it may seem intimidating at first, learning how to use the terminal can greatly increase your productivity and efficiency when working with your computer. One common task that users may need to perform is checking the size of a folder. In this blog post, we will explore how to do this using just one command in the Ubuntu terminal.

Using the “du” Command

The “du” command is a commonly used command in the terminal that stands for “disk usage”. This command allows users to check the size of files and directories on their system. To use the “du” command to check the size of a folder, open the terminal and navigate to the directory that contains the folder you want to check.

Once you are in the directory, type the following command:

du -sh foldername

Replace “foldername” with the name of the folder you want to check. The “-sh” option tells the “du” command to display the size of the folder in a human-readable format, making it easier to understand.

When you press enter, the terminal will display the size of the folder in bytes. If the folder is particularly large, the size may be displayed in kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or even terabytes (TB), depending on the size of the folder.

Using the “ls” Command

Another way to check the size of a folder in the Ubuntu terminal is to use the “ls” command. This command is used to list the contents of a directory, including files and folders. To use the “ls” command to check the size of a folder, open the terminal and navigate to the directory that contains the folder you want to check.

Once you are in the directory, type the following command:

ls -lh foldername

Replace “foldername” with the name of the folder you want to check. The “-lh” option tells the “ls” command to display the size of the folder in a human-readable format, similar to the “du” command.

When you press enter, the terminal will display a list of the contents of the folder, along with their sizes. The size of the folder itself will be displayed at the bottom of the list.

Using the “df” Command

The “df” command is another useful command in the terminal that stands for “disk free”. This command displays information about the available disk space on your system. While it does not specifically display the size of a folder, it can be used to determine how much space is being used by a particular directory.

To use the “df” command to check the size of a folder, open the terminal and navigate to the directory that contains the folder you want to check.

Once you are in the directory, type the following command:

df -h .

The “.” at the end of the command tells the “df” command to display information about the current directory. The “-h” option tells the command to display the information in a human-readable format.

When you press enter, the terminal will display information about the available disk space on your system, including the total size of the disk, the amount of space used, and the amount of space available. The amount of space used by the current directory will be displayed in the “Used” column.

Using the “ncdu” Command

The “ncdu” command is a more advanced command that allows users to interactively explore their file system and view the sizes of files and directories. This command can be particularly useful if you need to find large files or folders that are taking up a lot of space on your system.

To use the “ncdu” command to check the size of a folder, open the terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install ncdu

This command will install the “ncdu” command on your system if it is not already installed. Once the installation is complete, navigate to the directory that contains the folder you want to check.

Once you are in the directory, type the following command:

ncdu

The “ncdu” command will launch an interactive interface that allows you to navigate your file system and view the sizes of files and directories. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the folder you want to check, and press enter to view its contents and size.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have explored several different ways to check the size of a folder in the Ubuntu terminal. Whether you prefer to use the “du” command, the “ls” command, the “df” command, or the more advanced “ncdu” command, there is a method that will work for you. By mastering these commands, you can become more efficient and productive when working with your computer, and gain a deeper understanding of how your file system works.

To check the size of a folder using the terminal in Ubuntu, you can use the du command. The du command stands for “disk usage,” and it can be used to display the sizes of directories and files in a file system.

To check the size of a specific folder, use the du command followed by the path to the folder you want to check. For example, to check the size of the Downloads folder in the home directory, you would run the following command:

du ~/Downloads

This will display the size of the Downloads folder, as well as the sizes of all the subdirectories and files within it.

By default, the du command displays the sizes in kilobytes (KB). You can use the -h option to display the sizes in “human-readable” format, which means the sizes will be displayed in a more readable format, such as megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). For example:

du -h ~/Downloads

This will display the size of the Downloads folder in a more readable format, such as 4.0M for 4 megabytes or 1.2G for 1.2 gigabytes.

You can also use the --max-depth option to specify the maximum depth of the directories to display. For example, to display only the size of the top-level directories and files in the Downloads folder, you can use the following command:

du --max-depth=1 ~/Downloads

This will display the sizes of only the top-level directories and files in the Downloads folder, rather than the sizes of all the subdirectories and files as well.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

I see that you really want to learn how to use the Ubuntu terminal. Asking is really the way.

It all starts with the du command that recursively summarizes the use of data from each file in a folder or subfolder.

Use this way:

du -hs /patch/to/directory

The “-h” makes numbers readable to humans (eg 300MB instead of 300000 Kilobytes).

The “-s” presents a summary of data (this prevents the command from showing data for all items in the folder).

You can use the --max-depth command to set the depth of the analysis and prevent du from showing all the contents of folders and subfolders recursively.

du -h --max-depth=1 /path/to/directory

Try and enjoy!