QDirStat — The Complete Guide: A Disk Usage Map for Linux Workstations and Servers
QDirStat, by Stefan Hundhammer, is a disk usage analyser for Linux in the spirit of WinDirStat. It is open source (GPL-2.0), free for any use, and usually installed from the distribution’s package repository.
QDirStat
Stefan Hundhammer
A WinDirStat-style disk-usage map for Linux: a folder tree and a coloured treemap that show what takes up space.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Tree sorted by size — see at once which folder is swelling.
- Treemap — every file is a rectangle of proportional size, so huge files stand out.
- Statistics — space by file type and a histogram of size and age.
- System packages — how much space each installed package takes.
- Remote servers — save a scan to a file and analyse it on another computer.
When to use it
A compute workstation filled with result files, or a server where a disk space alert has fired. The built-in cleanup actions can delete permanently, so set them to move to trash and make sure important result files are backed up before deleting. There is no Windows version, and on macOS only through third-party builds.
Related tools
The same idea on Windows — WinDirStat or the fast WizTree. For a simple ring view on KDE — Filelight. For duplicates — Czkawka.
WinDirStat
WinDirStat team
A visual map of disk usage — find huge model, mesh and result files that are filling the drive.
Get it from the vendor
WizTree
Antibody Software
An extremely fast disk-space analyser — finds huge model, mesh and result files in seconds.
Get it from the vendor
Filelight
KDE
An interactive ring map of disk usage from KDE, for Linux and Windows, to spot heavy folders quickly.
Get it from the vendor
Czkawka / Krokiet
Rafał Mikrut (qarmin)
Finds duplicate files, similar images and videos, empty folders and big files, in a fast open-source tool with no ads.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The most thorough Linux tool for understanding where the space went, and freeing it under control.