Examining disk space on Linux

$ alias bysize="ls -lhS"

Using the fdisk command

fdisk The command can provide useful statistics about your disk partitions. Here’s an example:

$ sudo fdisk
fdisk: bad usage
Try 'fdisk --help' for more information.
$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 14.91 GiB, 16013942784 bytes, 31277232 sectors
Disk model: KINGSTON SNS4151
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 818C0FC9-CBBA-49E5-953B-A511A4E40A3D
Device       Start      End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1     2048  1230847  1228800  600M EFI System
/dev/sda2  1230848  3327999  2097152    1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  3328000 31277055 27949056 13.3G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/zram0: 3.7 GiB, 3967811584 bytes, 968704 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk /dev/loop0: 103.99 MiB, 109043712 bytes, 212976 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop1: 8.44 MiB, 8847360 bytes, 17280 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Using the lsblk command

lsblk The command provides very useful information about your disk partitions. The output shown below clearly shows that there were three partitions on the disk (sda), their sizes and mount points.

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0    7:0    0  104M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/core/16928
loop1    7:1    0  8.4M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/gping/13
sda      8:0    0 14.9G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0  600M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0    1G  0 part /boot
└─sda3   8:3    0 13.3G  0 part /home
/
zram0  252:0    0  3.7G  0 disk [SWAP]

Wrap

These commands described in this post can help you estimate disk space, diagnose disk usage problems, and manage disk space effectively.