xdiskusage(1) xdiskusage(1)
23 Dec 1998
NAME
xdiskusage - Grapical display of disk usage
SYNOPSIS
xdiskusage [-a] [-d[isplay] host:n.n] [-g[eometry] WxH+X+Y] [-t[itle]
windowtitle] [-n[ame] classname] [-i[conic]] [-fg color] [-bg color]
[-bg2 color] [directory...] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
xdiskusage displays the output of "du" in an X window, allowing you to
graphically compare the sizes that the files and directories take.
This program was inspired by, and the user interface design copied
from, the "xdu" program written by Phillip C. Dykstra
<phil@arl.army.mil>
USAGE
Typing "xdiskusage dir" where "dir" is a directory causes "du" to be
run on that directory and the result displayed. If the named file is
a symbolic link it is dereferenced before being sent to du. The "-a"
switch, if given, is passed to "du" to cause all files to be measured.
Typing "xdiskusage file" where "file" is not a directory makes
xdiskusage parse that file as though it was "du" output and display
the result.
You can type several file and directory names and get several display
windows.
If no files are named, you can pipe the output from another program to
xdiskusage. If stdin is not a terminal xdiskusage will parse it as
"du" output and display the result.
Typing just "xdiskusage" brings up the disk browser described here:
DISK BROWSER
By default xdiskusage presents you with a list of all the disks
mounted on your system (it found these by running "df"). Click one of
these names and it will scan the entire disk (by running "du") and
present a graphical display of how much space all the files are taking
on that disk.
You can click on several disks (or on the same disk multiple times,
for instance if you have changed the files stored on it) and get
multiple display windows.
The "rescan" button reruns "df" to get a new list of disks. You need
to do this if you mount or unmount a disk, or to see new usage
percentages.
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xdiskusage(1) xdiskusage(1)
23 Dec 1998
The (C) button shows you the copyright and license.
You can type a filename into the input field on the bottom and type
Enter. If the name is a directory, xdiskusage will attempt to run "du"
on it and display the result. If the name is a file it is assummed to
be "du" output and it is parsed and displayed.
The "all files" button sends the -a switch to "du" causing it to list
the space for every file on the disk. This can significantly increase
the time it takes to scan.
DISPLAY
Each white box represents a directory. It's size is equal to the sum
of all it's contents (all subdirectories and files). To the right of
each box are stacked the boxes for the subdirectories (and files if
the "all files" switch was given).
If you selected a disk from the disk browser, some extra boxes are
added to show information learned from df. "(free)" is the free space
reported by df. "(permission denied)" is space that df said was used
but du did not report (this may be due to other errors, but permission
errors are the normal reason). "(inodes)" is the difference between
the total size of the disk and the used + available space reported by
du, this is overhead used by the file system.
The left-most box is the "current directory".
Clicking on any box makes it the current directory: putting it on the
left edge and blowing it up to the height of the window and scaling
all it's contents the same. Clicking on the current directory goes up
to it's parent directory.
To dismiss any window type Escape.
MENU ITEMS
There is a pop-up menu on the right-hand mouse button. Every item on
the menu has a keyboard shortcut. The menu items are:
In (right arrow) go to the first child of the current directory.
Next (down arrow) go down to brother of current directory.
Previous (up arrow) go up to the brother of current directory.
Out (left arrow) go to parent of current directory.
Root (slash) put the current directory back to the outermost one
Sort/Largest (s) sort largest size at the top
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xdiskusage(1) xdiskusage(1)
23 Dec 1998
Sort/Smallest (r) sort smallest size at the top
Sort/Alphabetical (a) sort in alphabetical order
Sort/Reverse Alphabetical (z) sort in backwards alphabetical order
Sort/Unsorted (u) sort in the order read from du.
Columns/2-11 (2-9,0,1) arrange display to have N columns.
Copy to Clipboard (c) the pathname of the current directory is put in
the X clipboard (you can then paste it into a shell command).
Print (p) The current display is printed. The output is Encapsulated
PostScript. It will either run it through lpr (or any command you
choose) or send it to a file.
BUGS
Gets confused by "df" output on some platforms, requiring platform-
specific code.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000 Bill Spitzak
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA.
AUTHORS
Written by Bill Spitzak spitzak@d2.com
- 3 - Formatted: November 5, 2025
