Bdtyktl

I know how to check space left with:

df -h

and I know to check the space of a folder with:

du -ch /path/to/folder/

But let's say I have a 500 GB HardDisk and 350GB are used:

• Wich is the best tool/command to get how the space is distributed ?




• Should I do du -ch / ? (I think this is not optimal)




• There is any special tool/app to do this ?

I'd like an app that stores how the space is distributed in my system, wich are the space occuped in each folder...

I'd like to have something like SpaceSniffer (You can check the windows tool here). It is a Windows program that examine your HardDisk and show in a easy & nice IU how the space is distributed on your computer

This kind of software is awesome for that day you check your HardDisk and it seems you've "lost" hundred of GB's and don't know where they are !

Edit

• I've tried baobab and runs/works perfectly in my Ubuntu machine, I tested also JDiskReport, here I have to fix some issues but it works in Ubuntu & Windows




• I assume JDiskReport will work in any  OS with Java installed, that's why I choose as correct answer. I've tried this in Ubuntu, Windows 8, Raspbian and CentOS and works in all of them (you have to install Java)




• I have to say for those lovers of command-line your choice should be ncdu, it's awesome !!!

Baobab IU:

Another very useful app for this is:

JDiskReport

Is very similar to windows SpaceSniffer and has a very useful and intuitive IU.

You need Java to use it but it can run in every OS with Java

The user interface:

Hope it helps !

One nice Gnome application is baobab. It comes with default ubuntu installation.

To get it,

sudo apt-get install baobab

apt-cache show baobab



Description-en: GNOME disk usage analyzer

 Disk Usage Analyzer is a graphical, menu-driven application to analyse

 disk usage in a GNOME environment. It can easily scan either the whole

 filesystem tree, or a specific user-requested directory branch (local or

 remote).

 .

 It also auto-detects in real-time any changes made to your home

 directory as far as any mounted/unmounted device. Disk Usage Analyzer

 also provides a full graphical treemap window for each selected folder.

ncdu

If you use the command line, you could use ncdu. It uses a command-line GUI (ncurses).

Installation

sudo apt-get install ncdu

Description

From its webpage:

[...] ncdu: A disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface, aimed to be run
on a remote server where you don't have an entire gaphical setup, but
have to do with a simple SSH connection. ncdu aims to be fast, simple
and easy to use, and should be able to run in any minimal POSIX-like
environment with ncurses installed.

Screenshot

Example

Check out the disk usage of your home directory:

ncdu ~

You can enter subdirectories and delete files / whole folders from within the tool.

Use the ducks:

du -cks *|sort -rn|head -n11

This will list the top ten subdirectories and files in the current path and the space they are using, and a total.

If you change the -cks to -cms it reports in MB's instead of KB's, which is probably more useful these days.

You can add x to the options on du to prevent it going into other file systems, if needbe.

(Credit: Linux Server Hacks, O'Reilly)