Last Updated on September 1, 2020
Summary
dutree is a useful disk usage analyzer which is helpful in locating space hogs.
dutree faces some pretty stiff competition from other open source software. Our favorite disk analyzer is QDirStat although that is not text-based software. If you’re looking for a text-based disk analyzer, we recommend ncdu. It’s faster than dutree, and provides real-time scanning progress.
Besides the problems experienced in scanning huge directory trees, dutree doesn’t correctly report hard links as it double-counts the usage of multiple directory entries that refer to the same files. We’d like an option to use a pager when the output extends beyond a terminal’s height.
Here’s our chart summarizing our rating of other disk usage analyzers. We give dutree a score of 7.3.
Website: github.com/nachoparker/dutree
Support:
Developer: Christopher Lemmer Webber
License: GNU General Public License v3 or any later version
dutree is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Summary
Related Software
| du alternatives | Programming Language | License |
|---|---|---|
| dust | Rust | Apache License 2.0 |
| duf | Go | MIT License |
| Duc | C | GNU Lesser General Public License v3 |
| Ncdu | C | GNU GPL v2.0 License |
| gdu | Go | MIT License |
| cull | Go | MIT License |
| dua | Rust | MIT License |
| erdtree | Rust | MIT License |
| pdu | Rust | Apache License 2.0 |
| vizex | Python | MIT License |
| godu | Go | MIT License |
| dutree | Rust | GNU General Public License v3 |
| space | Rust | MIT License |
| darya | Rust | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| diskus | Rust | MIT License or Apache License 2.0 |
| mcdu | Rust | MIT License |
| dirstat-rs | Rust | MIT License |
| diskonaut | Rust | MIT License |
| bonsai | C++ | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| diskard | Rust | MIT License or Apache License 2.0 |
| cdu | Perl | GNU General Public License v2.0 |
| tdu | Go | GNU General Public License v2 |
| duviz | Python | MIT License |
| dut | C | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
| whalespotter | Rust | MIT License |
| sn | Rust | BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |
“my disks always fill up over time”
Shall I let you into a secret? Your disks are filling up at an even FASTER rate when installing all of these new rust language programs to replace the equivalent functionality of standard C/C++ programs.
Old fashioned tux commander binary (and tuxcmd functionality can be expanded with various plugins) has a size of 1,8 Mbyte. The size of dutree is over 8 times that at 15 Mbyte.
“we found the software was very slow […] compared to say ncdu”
Well, you took the words right out of my mouth. Yep, bloated too.
The size of the binary dutree is 1.5MB not 15MB. It’s not bloated. Disks fill up not because users have installed a few Rust programs but because of things like design decisions taken by distributions, end users forgetting they have downloaded huge files, software that use huge disk caches etc.
You are correct Bear. dutree uses 1.5MB of hard disk space.
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.5M Feb 6 16:46 dutree
Rust programs can use more hard disk space than ‘standard’ utilities they replace. But that’s comparing oranges with apples. In any event, even a system with 100 Rust utilities consuming a few megabytes each wouldn’t be the cause of running out of hard disk space.