xdiskusage - Graphical display of disk usage

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...]

xdiskusage displays the output of "du" in an X window, allowing you to graphically compare the sizes that the files and directories take.

Typing "xdiskusage dir" where "dir" is a folder causes "du" to be run on that folder 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 folder makes xdiskusage parse that file as though it was "du" output and display the result.

You can type several file and folder 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. For instance "du -k . | xdiskusage".

Typing just "xdiskusage" brings up the disk browser described here:

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.

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 assumed 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.

Each white box represents a folder. It's size is equal to the sum of all it's contents (all sub-folders and files). To the right of each box are stacked the boxes for the sub-folders (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. Besides permission errors when running du, this may also be the result of a file deleted from its containing folder, but still in use by a program, so its space is not reclaimed yet. Mounted loopback filesystems (ISO image just checked before burning, then deleted while still mounted) are common examples.

"(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 root". One of the boxes is outlined in red, this is the "current node".

Clicking on any box makes it the current node. The arrow keys can also be used to navigate you around. Hitting return makes the current node be the current root: putting it on the left edge and blowing it up to the height of the window and scaling all it's contents the same. The left arrow can be used to move the root and current node back up, or you can type '/' to move just the root, leaving the current node where it is.

To dismiss any window type Escape.

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 folder.

Next (down arrow) go down to brother of current folder.

Previous (up arrow) go up to the brother of current folder.

Out (left arrow) go to parent of current folder.

Root out (slash) move the root of the window up to it's parent.

Hide (h) remove this node from the display and scale rest up to fit

Unhide (H) Recursively turn off the hide flag from all children

Sort/Largest (s) sort largest size at the top

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 node 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.

Gets confused by "df" output on some platforms, requiring platform-specific code.

This program was inspired by, and the user interface design copied from, the "xdu" program written by Phillip C. Dykstra. <dykstra at ieee dot org> <phil at arl dot army dot mil>

Stephane Gourichon contributed many suggested improvements. <stephane dot gourichon at lip6 dot fr>

Copyright (C) 2003 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.

Written by Bill Spitzak spitzak at dee two dot com