Examining disk space on Linux

$ alias bysize="ls -lhS"

Using the fdisk command

The fdisk command can provide useful stats on your disk partitions. Here’s an example:

$ sudo fdisk
fdisk: bad usage
Try 'fdisk --help' for more information.
$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 14.91 GiB, 16013942784 bytes, 31277232 sectors
Disk model: KINGSTON SNS4151
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 818C0FC9-CBBA-49E5-953B-A511A4E40A3D
Device       Start      End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1     2048  1230847  1228800  600M EFI System
/dev/sda2  1230848  3327999  2097152    1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  3328000 31277055 27949056 13.3G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/zram0: 3.7 GiB, 3967811584 bytes, 968704 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk /dev/loop0: 103.99 MiB, 109043712 bytes, 212976 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop1: 8.44 MiB, 8847360 bytes, 17280 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Using the lsblk command

The lsblk command provides very useful information on your disk partitions. The output shown below clearly shows that the disk (sda) had three partitions and their sizes and mount points.

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0    7:0    0  104M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/core/16928
loop1    7:1    0  8.4M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/gping/13
sda      8:0    0 14.9G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0  600M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0    1G  0 part /boot
└─sda3   8:3    0 13.3G  0 part /home
/
zram0  252:0    0  3.7G  0 disk [SWAP]

Wrap-up

These commands described in this post can help you evaluate disk storage, diagnose disk usage issues and manage disk space effectively.