There may be times when you need to download some important files or transfer some images to your Linux system, but face an issue of insufficient disk space. You head over to your file manager to delete the large files you no longer need, but you have no idea which ones are taking up most of your disk space. In this article, we will show some simple methods to check disk usage in Linux from both terminal and GUI application.
How to check Linux disk space usage with DF and DU commands
In Linux, there are many commands to check disk usage, the most common is the df command. Df stands for "Disk Filesystem" in the command, which is a handy way to check current disk usage and available disk space in Linux. The syntax for the df command in Linux is as follows:
The options to use with the df command are: OptionsDescription-aDisplay information about all filesystems including pseudo, duplicate and inaccessible filesystems-hDisplay the sizes in readable format ie. of a specific type-xShow the disk usage excluding a specific file type
The df command displays the sizes in bytes, which can be difficult for some people to read. To see file sizes in a readable format like megabytes, gigabytes, etc., then use the -h flag. The syntax looks like this:
