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du and df Disk Usage Cheat Sheet

Use df, du and find to check full partitions, inode usage, large directories, big files and common hosting disk problems.

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Check filesystem usage with df

Human readable disk usage

df -h

Filesystem type

df -hT

Specific path

df -h /home

Inode usage

df -ih

Check directory usage with du

Current folder summary

du -sh .

Everything in current folder

du -sh * | sort -h

One level under /home/user

du -h --max-depth=1 /home/user | sort -h

Top largest directories

du -xhm /home/user | sort -nr | head

Find large files

Files over 500MB

find /home/user -type f -size +500M -exec ls -lh {} \;

Large logs

find /home/user -type f -name "*.log" -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;

Large backups

find /home/user -type f \( -name "*.zip" -o -name "*.tar.gz" -o -name "*.sql" \) -exec ls -lh {} \;

Sort by size

find /home/user -type f -size +100M -printf "%s %p\n" | sort -nr | head

Check inode usage

Filesystem inode usage

df -ih

Count files in directory

find /home/user -xdev -type f | wc -l

Many tiny files

find /home/user -type f | sed 's#/[^/]*$##' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
A partition can be full because it ran out of inodes even when there is free disk space.

Logs, cache and temporary files

Large cPanel user logs

du -sh /home/user/logs/* | sort -h

Large cache folders

du -h --max-depth=2 /home/user/public_html | grep -i cache | sort -h

Old logs

find /home/user/logs -type f -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -ls

Tmp usage

du -h --max-depth=1 /tmp | sort -h

Hosting support recipes

Top accounts by disk

du -sh /home/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail

Largest public_html folders

du -sh /home/*/public_html 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail

Check mail disk usage

du -sh /home/user/mail/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

Check MySQL dumps

find /home/user -type f -name "*.sql" -exec ls -lh {} \;

Safety tips

  • Use ls, du and find -ls before deleting anything.
  • Be careful with cache directories. Some applications regenerate them, some do not.
  • Do not delete active database files or mail files unless you know exactly what they are.
  • Use --max-depth to avoid drowning in output.
Disk workflows

du and df workflows for disk investigations

Filesystem usage

df -h

Top level directory sizes

du -xhd1 / | sort -h

Find large files

find / -xdev -type f -size +500M -exec ls -lh {} \; 2>/dev/null

Check inodes

df -ih
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between du and df?

df shows filesystem usage. du shows directory or file usage.

How do I check disk space in human readable format?

Use df -h.

How do I find large directories?

Use du -xhd1 PATH | sort -h.

What are inodes?

Inodes track filesystem objects. A disk can run out of inodes even if space remains.