dua

fast parallel disk usage analyzer

TLDR

Analyze current directory

$ dua

Analyze specific path

$ dua [/path/to/directory]

Interactive mode

$ dua i

Interactive with specific path

$ dua i [/path/to/directory]

Show apparent size instead of disk usage

$ dua -A [/path/to/directory]

Use specific number of threads

$ dua -t [4] [/path/to/directory]

Show all files (not just directories)

$ dua -f [/path/to/directory]

Show version

$ dua --version

SYNOPSIS

dua [options] [path...]
dua i [options] [path...]

dua (Disk Usage Analyzer) is a fast disk space analyzer with an optional interactive interface. It scans directories and displays sizes.
Default mode shows aggregate sizes for paths. Interactive mode (dua i) provides a navigable tree view for exploring disk usage.
Multi-threaded traversal makes dua faster than traditional du on SSDs and parallel filesystems. Thread count auto-detects but can be overridden.
Apparent size (-A) shows actual file content size. Without it, dua shows disk usage which includes filesystem overhead and sparse file handling.
In interactive mode, mark files for deletion with d and confirm before quitting. This enables cleaning up large files directly from the interface.

PARAMETERS

-A, --apparent-size

Show apparent size instead of disk usage.

-t, --threads count

Number of threads for traversal.

-f, --format type

Size format: metric, binary, bytes, GB, GiB, MB, MiB.

--ignore-dirs

Don't cross filesystem boundaries.

-l, --count-hard-links

Count hard-linked files multiple times.

--stay-on-filesystem

Don't cross mount points.

-h, --help

Display help information.

-V, --version

Display version information.

COMMANDS

i, interactive

Start interactive mode.

aggregate [path...]

Default mode, show sizes.

INTERACTIVE KEYS

j/k or Down/Up

Navigate entries.

Enter or l

Enter directory.

u or h

Go up to parent.

Open in file manager.

Mark for deletion.

Space

Toggle expansion.

Sort by size.

Refresh.

Go to top.

Go to bottom.

Ctrl+c or q

Quit.

CAVEATS

Deletion in interactive mode is permanent (no trash). Scanning very large filesystems takes time despite parallelism. Apparent vs disk size can differ significantly for sparse files.

HISTORY

dua was created by Sebastian Thiel (Byron) and first released around 2019. Written in Rust, it was designed as a fast, user-friendly alternative to du and ncdu. The project emphasizes performance through parallel traversal and provides both CLI and TUI interfaces. It's part of a broader suite of Rust file utilities.

dua