df

See how much disk space there is

What it does

df -h lists every mounted file system: its size, how much is used and free, how full it is in percent, and where it is mounted (/ is the system root). -h shows sizes in readable units instead of blocks.

When a disk fills up to 100%, services start to fail: databases cannot write and logs break off. That makes df -h one of the first commands to run when "everything broke". du helps find what takes the space.

Syntax

df -h
df -h <folder>

Examples

• See how much disk space is used and free

  df -h

  same as: df --human-readable

  • df — disk free — space on disks
  • -h — in GB and MB

Related commands

• du — Find out how much space a folder takes
• free — See how much memory is used and free
• journalctl — Read the logs of services and the system

Practise · All commands