dust

Display information for the current directory

$ dust

$ dust [path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...]

$ dust [[-n|--number-of-lines]] 30

$ dust [[-d|--depth]] 3

$ dust [[-r|--reverse]]

$ dust [[-X|--ignore-directory]] [path/to/file_or_directory]

$ dust [[-b|--no-percent-bars]]

dust [OPTIONS] [PATH...]

-c, --continuous
    Continuously watch filesystem for changes (refreshes periodically)

--depth <DEPTH>, -d <DEPTH>
    Maximum depth to descend into directories (-1 for unlimited)

--exclude <GLOB>
    Glob patterns to exclude (e.g., --exclude "**/*.tmp")

-f, --file-summaries
    Show individual file sizes instead of directory summaries

-H
    Dereference symlinks (warning: can be slow on large trees)

-i, --ignore-ignore
    Respect .gitignore, .dockerignore, and similar files

--max-depth <DEPTH>
    Alias for --depth

-p, --no-prune
    Display empty directories

-r, --reverse
    Reverse sort order (smallest first)

-s, --summarize
    Show only the total summary

-h, --help
    Print help information

-V, --version
    Print version information

Dust is a powerful, user-friendly alternative to the traditional Unix du command, designed for quick visualization of disk usage. Written in Rust for speed and safety, it presents a colorful, tree-like hierarchy of directories and files, with horizontal bar charts showing size proportions. Each line displays the path, size in human-readable format (e.g., 1.2 GB), and percentage of parent.

Unlike du's verbose numeric output, dust sorts entries by size (largest first), prunes empty directories by default, and supports features like continuous monitoring, symlink dereferencing, and exclusion patterns. It's interactive-feeling in terminal, allowing quick scanning of space hogs. Ideal for sysadmins, developers, and users troubleshooting storage issues.

Installation is via package managers (e.g., apt install dust on some distros) or cargo install dust. Output is optimized for dark terminals with 256-color support.

Not installed by default; requires separate installation via package manager or Cargo.
High-depth scans on large filesystems can be resource-intensive.
Colors may not render in non-256-color terminals.

Tree view with color-coded size bars (green=small, red=large).
Human units (B, KB, MB, GB, TB).
Automatically sorts largest first; percentages relative to parent.

Faster than du on large trees due to parallel scanning and caching.
Single-pass summation avoids multiple traversals.

Developed by Andy White (bootandy) starting in 2017 as a Rust rewrite of du for better UX. First stable release ~2018 via GitHub. Evolved with features like continuous mode (v0.5+) and exclusions (v0.6+). Widely packaged in Arch, Fedora, NixOS; over 10k stars on GitHub.

du(1), ncdu(1), gdu(1)