du Command Reference: Flags, Usage & CI Examples

du reports disk usage per file and directory.

du estimates the space used by files and directory trees. Where df tells you a filesystem is full, du tells you which directories are responsible.

Common flags and usage

• -h: human-readable sizes
• -s: summary total for each argument
• -d <N> / --max-depth=N: limit how deep to report
• -x: stay on one filesystem
• --exclude=<pattern>: skip matching paths
• du -ah | sort -rh: rank entries by size

Example

du -h -d1 / 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -15

In CI

After df -h shows a disk near full, du -h -d1 on the suspect path ranks the biggest subdirectories so you can prune caches or artifacts. -x keeps it from wandering into mounted volumes you do not care about.

Key takeaways

• du attributes disk usage to specific files and directories.
• du -h -d1 | sort -rh ranks the biggest space consumers.
• Pair du with df to find what filled a runner disk.

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