Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

Displaying the grand total sum of disk usage

The -c option will calculate the total size used by files or directories, as well as display individual file sizes:

    $ du -c FILENAME1 FILENAME2..
    du -c process_log.sh pcpu.sh
    4  process_log.sh
    4  pcpu.sh
    8  total

Alternatively, use it like one of these:

    $ du  -c DIRECTORY
    $ du -c test/
    16  test/
    16  total

Or:

    $ du -c *.txt
    # Wildcards

The -c option can be used with options such as -a and -h to produce the usual output, with an extra line containing the total size.

The -s option (summarize), will print the grand total as the output. The -h flag can be used with it to print in a human-readable format:

    $ du -sh /usr/bin
    256M   /usr/bin