dust

Updated

September 4, 2026

Overview

dust is a modern du alternative that shows disk usage as a readable tree/bars, helping you find large directories quickly. Written in Rust; optional install. For portable scripts use du -sh; for interactive TUI browsing also consider ncdu.

Syntax

dust [options] [directory...]

Common Options

Option Description
-d DEPTH, --depth Max depth
-n N, --number-of-lines Entries to show
-r, --reverse Reverse natural order
-p, --full-paths Full paths
-s, --apparent-size Apparent size vs allocated
-i, --ignore-directory Ignore path
-X file Ignore from file
-e, --filter Include only matching names
-v, --invert-filter Invert filter
-c, --no-colors Disable colors
-b, --no-percent-bars No bars
-z, --min-size Min size threshold
-t, --file-types Group by filetype
-w, --terminal-width Width

Check dust --help for current flags.

Examples with Explanations

Find big directories

dust
dust -d 2 /var
dust -n 30 /home

Apparent size

dust -s
du -sh --apparent-size *

Ignore noise

dust -i node_modules -i .git
dust -X .dustignore

File types

dust -t

Compare with du / ncdu

du -h -d 1 /var | sort -h
dust -d 1 /var
ncdu /var

Min size filter

dust -z 100M /

Scripts: stick to du

du -sb /var/lib/docker
# dust is for humans

Notes / Pitfalls

  • Permission errors on other users’ dirs skew totals — run with appropriate rights.
  • Hard links / snapshots / sparse files: understand apparent vs allocated.
  • Network filesystems: slow; prefer scoped paths.
  • Not preinstalled on servers.
  • Colors in pipes may need -c.

2026-relevant notes

  • Great laptop/dev host tool; production forensics still document du/find.
  • Container disk growth: dust the overlay/graph roots carefully with host tools.
  • Pair with duf for free space vs dust for “what ate it”.

Additional Resources