Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: System Administration Guide
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# 42.3. File Systems

The `df` command reports the system's disk space usage. If you type the command `df` at a shell prompt, the output looks similar to the following:

    Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
    /dev/hda2             10325716   2902060   6899140  30% /
    /dev/hda1                15554      8656      6095  59% /boot
    /dev/hda3             20722644   2664256  17005732  14% /home
    none                    256796         0    256796   0% /dev/shm

By default, this utility shows the partition size in 1 kilobyte blocks and the amount of used and available disk space in kilobytes. To view the information in megabytes and gigabytes, use the command `df -h`. The `-h` argument stands for human-readable format. The output looks similar to the following:

    Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/hda2             9.8G  2.8G  6.5G  30% /
    /dev/hda1              15M  8.5M  5.9M  59% /boot
    /dev/hda3              20G  2.6G   16G  14% /home
    none                  251M     0  250M   0% /dev/shm

In the list of partitions, there is an entry for `/dev/shm`. This entry represents the system's virtual memory file system.

The `du` command displays the estimated amount of space being used by files in a directory. If you type `du` at a shell prompt, the disk usage for each of the subdirectories will be displayed in a list. The grand total for the current directory and subdirectories will also be shown as the last line in the list. If you do not want to see the totals for all the subdirectories, use the command `du -hs` to see only the grand total for the directory in human-readable format. Use the `du --help` command to see more options.

To view the system's partitions and disk space usage in a graphical format, use the System Monitor tab as shown at the bottom of Figure 42-2.

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