I’m Kayla. I make videos, run small servers, and break things on my laptop more than I should. I need to know file sizes a lot. Like, “Why is my disk full again?” a lot. Here’s what I used on Linux to check file size, with real stuff from my day. What worked. What bugged me. And what I reach for now without thinking.
If you’d like a step-by-step walk-through of the exact commands I lean on, I wrote up a dedicated piece you can skim in two minutes: my companion guide to checking file size on Linux.
Need an even broader primer? The concise FAQ on file sizes over at Linux-Audit lays out several handy commands in one place.
The fast glance: ls -lh
When I’m in a folder and just need a quick look, I use this:
ls -lh
Real example from my Videos folder:
-rw-r--r-- 1 kayla kayla 1.9G Jun 2 14:10 skatepark_cut.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 kayla kayla 824M Jun 2 09:22 broll_take3.mov
-rw-r--r-- 1 kayla kayla 12M May 30 20:01 intro_music.wav
That “-h” flag shows human sizes. Easy on the eyes. It’s enough—until it’s not. It won’t sum folders. And I always have folders.
Whole folder check: du -sh
For folders, this is my go-to:
du -sh ~/Videos
My output last week:
54G /home/kayla/Videos
Then I wanted details. So I ran:
du -sh ~/Videos/*
Sample:
31G /home/kayla/Videos/client_A
18G /home/kayla/Videos/youtube_drafts
2.5G /home/kayla/Videos/stock
1.6G /home/kayla/Videos/misc
You know what? That alone saved me a full hour of guesswork. If you want a deeper dive into everyday Linux tricks, I share more over on Desktop Linux Reviews.
What I liked:
- Simple. Fast enough.
- Good “big picture” view.
What bugged me:
- On a huge folder tree, it can take time.
- It shows disk usage, not always exact bytes.
Exact bytes, no fluff: stat
Sometimes I need the exact byte count. No rounding. No “about.” I use:
stat --printf="%n: %s bytesn" intro_music.wav
My output:
intro_music.wav: 12582912 bytes
That’s 12,582,912 bytes. Clean and crisp. Great when I’m sending files and the client wants a hard number.
When I’m counting bytes in a stream: wc -c
If I’m piping data or I want a no-nonsense count:
wc -c < skatepark_cut.mp4
Output:
2040109465
That’s 2,040,109,465 bytes. I use this with scripts. It’s boring, but it never lies.
Hunting big files fast: find + size
When my disk screams for help, I hunt big files like this:
find ~/ -type f -size +500M -printf "%10s %pn" 2>/dev/null | sort -nr | head
One afternoon, this showed:
2147483648 /home/kayla/Videos/client_A/raw_dump.tar
2040109465 /home/kayla/Videos/skatepark_cut.mp4
1027604480 /home/kayla/.cache/chrome/Cache/data_17
838860800 /home/kayla/VMs/ubuntu_test.qcow2
I didn’t even know Chrome’s cache got that chunky. It did. I cleaned it. Felt great. If you enjoy “day-in-the-life” problem-solving stories, the whole chase is in this first-person tale of hunting down huge files on my Linux box.
Sorting the mess: top 20 biggest things
If I’m poking around one folder tree:
du -ah . | sort -h | tail -n 20
It’s noisy, but helpful. I use it inside a project folder. It shows both files and folders. Then I drill down where it hurts.
Quick truth about disk space: df -h
This one isn’t file size. It shows disk free space. Still, I use it daily:
df -h
My output after a big export:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p3 474G 444G 12G 98% /
98%. Yikes. That’s how I know it’s time to clean house.
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My secret weapon: ncdu (it’s a gem)
I love ncdu. If you’ve never played with it before, the short Wikipedia overview is a nice starting point. It’s a small, nerdy tool. But I swear by it.
Install:
- Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ncdu
- Fedora: sudo dnf install ncdu
- Arch: sudo pacman -S ncdu
Run it in a folder:
ncdu ~/Videos
You get a simple screen with sizes. You can arrow around, press d to delete stuff (careful), and q to quit. One time it showed a forgotten folder named “client_A/render_cache” that was 11G. I removed it in seconds. Snack break victory.
What I liked:
- Fast.
- Easy to browse.
- Delete right there.
What bugged me:
- Terminal only. No pretty graphs. But I don’t mind.
GUI note (yes, I use it too)
On GNOME, I open Files, right-click a folder, and hit Properties. It shows size. But with many tiny files, it takes a while. The Disk Usage Analyzer app is fine too. Handy when I’m tired and don’t want to think.
Little gotchas I learned the hard way
- Sparse files: Some files, like VM images or databases, look huge but don’t use that much space. Try both:
- du -sh file.img
- du -sh –apparent-size file.img
- Permissions: If du shows “Permission denied,” add sudo. But think before you paste that.
- Network drives: Over VPN, du can feel slow. I run it inside the mount point, not on my whole home.
Real sparse file example I made for a test:
fallocate -l 2G fake.img
du -sh fake.img
# Output: 0B fake.img
du -sh --apparent-size fake.img
# Output: 2.0G fake.img
Wild, right?
If you ever crack open a pile of zipped archives (I do it weekly), you can save some time by skimming my “I unzipped a bunch of files so you don’t have to sweat it” write-up here: no-sweat unzipping on Linux.
Remote servers, quick and simple
I check logs on a small server I run:
ssh kayla@myserver "sudo du -sh /var/log/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail"
One night, this showed:
1.1G /var/log/journal
512M /var/log/nginx
I trimmed logs, restarted, and got my Sunday back.
Real-world mini case: spring clean
I had 12 GB free. Needed 40 GB for a new edit. My steps:
- df -h (confirm problem)
- du -sh ~/Videos/* (find the hogs)
- ncdu ~/Videos (drill down and delete cache)
- find ~/ -type f -size +500M -printf "%10s %pn" | sort -nr | head (catch oddballs)
Results:
- Deleted old proxies: 9.4G
- Zipped a raw dump and moved it