These docs are under active development and cover the v0.20 Kobicha security model.
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du

du — "disk usage" — reports how much space files and directories occupy. Where df tells you about a whole file system, du tells you where the space has actually gone.

du [options] [file...]

$ du -sh /home/jack/projects
4.2G    /home/jack/projects

With no arguments, du works on the current directory. By default it walks the directory tree, prints the cumulative size of each directory (a directory's size includes everything under it), and ends with the total for the argument itself. Individual files are not listed unless you ask for them.

What to count and how deep

Option Effect
-a, --all List every file, not only directories.
-s, --summarize Print only a single total for each argument — no per-subdirectory breakdown.
-d, --max-depth=N Show totals only down to N levels below each argument. -d 0 is the same as -s.
-S, --separate-dirs Give each directory's own size, excluding its subdirectories.
-c, --total Add a final grand-total line.
--inodes Count inodes used rather than space used.

What "size" means

Option Effect
-h, --human-readable Sizes with unit suffixes — 4.2G — using powers of 1024.
--si Likewise, using powers of 1000.
-B, --block-size=SIZE Scale sizes to SIZE.
-k / -m Use 1024-byte / 1024×1024-byte units.
--apparent-size Report the apparent size of files — how much data they contain — rather than the disk space they occupy. The two differ for sparse files and because of block rounding.
-b, --bytes Report plain byte counts. Equivalent to --apparent-size --block-size=1.

By default du does not follow symbolic links.

Option Effect
-L, --dereference Follow all symbolic links and count what they point to.
-D, -H, --dereference-args Follow only the symbolic links named directly on the command line.
-P, --no-dereference Follow no symbolic links. This is the default.
-x, --one-file-system Do not cross into a different file system while walking.
-l, --count-links Count a hard-linked file every time it is encountered, instead of once.

Limiting the output

Option Effect
--exclude=PATTERN Skip files and directories whose name matches PATTERN.
--exclude-from=FILE Skip everything matching any pattern listed in FILE.
-t, --threshold=SIZE Show only entries at least SIZE (or, with a negative SIZE, at most that big).
--files0-from=F Take the list of files to measure from F, NUL-separated. - means standard input.
--time[=WORD] Also show a timestamp — by default the latest modification time anywhere in the directory.
-0, --null End each output line with a NUL character instead of a newline.
-v, --verbose Report extra detail about what is being processed.

Exit status

Code Meaning
0 The report was produced.
1 A file or directory could not be accessed.

See also