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====== Alternative Folder Size Command ======
<color #db5f0b>Sep 2025</color>
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==== Introduction ====

There are many ways to work out the size of folders, but this one that I learnt today seems to be perfect for my needs.
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It is using the <color #ed1c24>du</color> (disk usage) command again, but with some different switch at the end.
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You need to login as <color #ed1c24>root</color> (sudo -s) for this to work as you may end up with permission errors, depending on what folders you are searching.
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Remember, this command works from the folder you are in, so if you want to look at all folders, you need to be at the root folder (cd /).
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We are going to use the command <color #ed1c24>du -h --max-depth=1</color> to show folder sizes.
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<color #ed1c24>If you are copying and pasting this command, the two dashes can get converted to one dash (--max-depth=1)</color>
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<code>
du -h --max-depth=1

2.2G    ./usr
28M     ./etc
4.0K    ./mnt
4.0K    ./dev
440K    ./.kube
4.0K    ./media
0       ./proc
16K     ./lost+found
14G     ./run
536K    ./tmp
12G     ./opt
70M     ./boot
18M     ./root
0       ./sys
4.0K    ./srv
788K    ./home
26G     ./var

52G     .
</code>

Above we can see the size of each folder, and at the bottom the total size of all folders.
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