The du utility gives the number of kilobytes contained in all files and, recursively, directories within each specified directory or file filename. If filename is missing, `.' (the current directory) is used.

A file that has multiple links to it is only counted once.

The following options are supported:

-a

Generates an entry for each file.

-d

Does not cross file system boundaries. For example, du -d / reports usage only on the root partition.

-k

Writes the files sizes in units of 1024 bytes, rather than the default 512-byte units.

-L

Processes symbolic links by using the file or directory that the symbolic link references, rather than the link itself.

-o

Does not add child directories' usage to a parent's total. Without this option, the usage listed for a particular directory is the space taken by the files in that directory, as well as the files in all directories beneath it. This option does nothing if the -s option is used.

-r

Generates messages about directories that cannot be read, files that cannot be opened, and so forth, rather than being silent (the default).

-s

Only displays the grand total for each of the specified filenames.

Entries are generated only for each directory in the absence of options.

If any of the LC_* variables, that is, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME, LC_COLLATE, LC_NUMERIC, and LC_MONETARY (see environ(5)), are not set in the environment, the operational behavior of du for each corresponding locale category is determined by the value of the LANG environment variable. If LC_ALL is set, its contents are used to override both the LANG and the other LC_* variables. If none of the above variables is set in the environment, the "C" (U.S. style) locale determines how du behaves.

LC_CTYPE

Determines how du handles characters. When LC_CTYPE is set to a valid value, du can display and handle text and filenames containing valid characters for that locale. du can display and handle Extended Unix Code (EUC) characters where any individual character can be 1, 2, or 3 bytes wide. du can also handle EUC characters of 1, 2, or more column widths. In the "C" locale, only characters from ISO 8859-1 are valid.

LC_MESSAGES

Determines how diagnostic and informative messages are presented. This includes the language and style of the messages, and the correct form of affirmative and negative responses. In the "C" locale, the messages are presented in the default form found in the program itself (in most cases, U.S. English).

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

pwd(1), df(1M), du(1), quot(1M), attributes(5), environ(5)

Filename arguments that are not directory names are ignored, unless you use -a.

If there are too many distinct linked files, du will count the excess files more than once.