Linux disk space tools

9 Tools to Monitor Linux Disk Partitions and Usage in Linux

In this article, we will review a number of Linux command line utilities that you can use to check disk partitions in Linux.

Monitoring storage device(s) space usage is one of the most important tasks of a SysAdmin, this helps to ensure adequate free space remains on the storage devices for efficient running of your Linux system.

Command Line Utilities To Print Linux Disk Partition Table

The following is a list of command line utilities for printing storage device partition table and space usage.

1. fdisk (fixed disk) Command

fdisk is a powerful and popular command line tool used for creating and manipulating disk partition tables.

It supports GPT, MBR, Sun, SGI and BSD partition tables. You can run fdisk commands through its user-friendly, text based and menu driven interface to display, create, resize, delete, modify, copy and move partitions on storage disks.

The fdisk command below will print the partition table of all mounted block devices:

Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment /dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition /dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environment /dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot /dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap /dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem Partition table entries are not in disk order.

For more usage and examples about fdisk command read 10 ‘fdisk’ Command Examples to Manage Partitions

2. sfdisk (scriptable fdisk) Command

sfdisk works more like fdisk, it prints or manipulates a storage disk partition table. However, sfdisk offers extra features not available in fdisk. You can use it just as fdisk, it also supports GPT, MBR, Sun and SGI partition tables.

One difference between the two is that sfdisk does not create the standard system partitions for SGI and SUN disk labels like fdisk does.

Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment /dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition /dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environment /dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot /dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap /dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem Partition table entries are not in disk order.

For more usage, go through sfdisk man pages.

3. cfdisk (curses fdisk) Command

cfdisk is simple program used for printing and managing disk partitions. It offers basic partitioning functionality with a user-friendly interface. It operates similar to the more powerful commands: fdisk and sfdisk allowing users to view, add, delete, and modify hard-disk partitions.

Use the right and left arrow keys to move the highlighter over the menu tabs.

Disk: /dev/sda Size: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Label: gpt, identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430 Device Start End Sectors Size Type >> Free space 2048 2048 0 0B /dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environm /dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition /dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environm /dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot /dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap /dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Filesystem: ntfs │ │Filesystem label: WINRE_DRV │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ [ New ] [ Quit ] [ Help ] [ Sort ] [ Write ] [ Dump ]

4. Parted Command

parted is also a well-known command line tool for displaying and manipulating disk partitions. It understands multiple partition table formats, including MBR and GPT.

Parted can be used for creating space for new partitions, reorganizing disk usage, and copying data to new hard disks and beyond.

Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 1049kB 1050MB 1049MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag 2 1050MB 1322MB 273MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, hidden, esp 3 1322MB 2371MB 1049MB fat32 Basic data partition hidden 4 2371MB 2505MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres 5 2505MB 601GB 598GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata 8 601GB 601GB 1049kB bios_grub 9 601GB 605GB 4000MB linux-swap(v1) 10 605GB 958GB 353GB ext4 6 958GB 984GB 26.8GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata 7 984GB 1000GB 15.7GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag

5. lsblk (list block) Command

lsblk prints information including name, type, mountpoint concerning all available or particular mounted block device(s) excluding RAM disks.

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda4 8:4 0 128M 0 part ├─sda5 8:5 0 557.1G 0 part ├─sda6 8:6 0 25G 0 part ├─sda7 8:7 0 14.7G 0 part ├─sda8 8:8 0 1M 0 part ├─sda9 8:9 0 3.7G 0 part [SWAP] └─sda10 8:10 0 328.7G 0 part / sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

6. blkid (block id) Command

blkid a utility that locates or displays block device attributes (NAME=value pair) such as device or partition name, label, its filesystem type among others.

/dev/sda1: LABEL="WINRE_DRV" UUID="D4A45AAAA45A8EBC" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="dcc4de2d-8fc4-490f-85e0-50c2e18cc33d" /dev/sda2: LABEL="SYSTEM_DRV" UUID="185C-DA5B" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="b13c479a-d63b-4fec-9aee-f926fe7b0b16" /dev/sda3: LABEL="LRS_ESP" UUID="0E60-2E0E" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="d464feab-0791-4866-a36b-90dbe6d6a437" /dev/sda5: LABEL="Windows8_OS" UUID="18D0632AD0630CF6" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="8a66bd5b-8624-4fdb-9ad8-18d8cd356160" /dev/sda6: LABEL="LENOVO" UUID="9286FFD986FFBC33" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="92fbbea9-6bcd-4ae5-a322-c96a07a81013" /dev/sda7: LABEL="PBR_DRV" UUID="ECD06683D066543C" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="0e2878a2-377c-4b35-9454-f1f2c6398405" /dev/sda9: UUID="e040de62-c837-453e-88ee-bd9000387083" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="f5eef371-a152-4208-a62f-0fb287f9acdd" /dev/sda10: UUID="bb29dda3-bdaa-4b39-86cf-4a6dc9634a1b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="26b60905-1c39-4fd4-bdce-95c517c781fa"

7. hwinfo (hardware info) Command

hwinfo generally prints detailed information about system hardware. But you can run the hwinfo command below, where you employ the — option to list all hardware items of the specified type (in this case block devices such as disks and their partitions).

To restrict the information to a summary, use —short option as in the command below:

disk: /dev/sda ST1000LM024 HN-M /dev/ram0 Disk /dev/ram1 Disk /dev/ram2 Disk /dev/ram3 Disk /dev/ram4 Disk /dev/ram5 Disk /dev/ram6 Disk /dev/ram7 Disk /dev/ram8 Disk /dev/ram9 Disk /dev/ram10 Disk /dev/ram11 Disk /dev/ram12 Disk /dev/ram13 Disk /dev/ram14 Disk /dev/ram15 Disk partition: /dev/sda1 Partition /dev/sda2 Partition /dev/sda3 Partition /dev/sda4 Partition /dev/sda5 Partition /dev/sda6 Partition /dev/sda7 Partition /dev/sda8 Partition /dev/sda9 Partition /dev/sda10 Partition cdrom: /dev/sr0 PLDS DVD-RW DA8A5SH

Make sure hwinfo tool installed on your system to get the above results..

Command Line Utilities To Monitor Disk Space Usage in Linux

The following is a list of command line utilities for monitoring Linux disk space usage.

8. df (disk filesystem) Command

df prints a summary of file system disk space usage on the terminal. In the command below, -hT switch enables reporting of the disk size, used space, available space and used space percentages in human-readable format.

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev devtmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 788M 9.6M 779M 2% /run /dev/sda10 ext4 324G 132G 176G 43% / tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 86M 3.8G 3% /dev/shm tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup cgmfs tmpfs 100K 0 100K 0% /run/cgmanager/fs tmpfs tmpfs 788M 32K 788M 1% /run/user/1000

9. pydf (python df) Command

pydf is an exceptional Python command line utility and a great replacement of df in Linux. It uses distinct colors to highlight disk partitions with specific attributes.

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda10 323G 132G 175G 40.7 [######################. ] /

Make sure pydf utility installed on the system, if not install it using Install Pydf Tool to Monitor Linux Disk Usage.

What if a disk/partition is running out of space in Linux?

Once you realize that any of your storage disk(s) is running out of space or is full, you should:

1. First, make a backup of all your important files on the system using any of the Linux system backup tools.
2. Next, check which files or directories are occupying the biggest amount of space on the disk(s) using the du command.
3. Then delete from the storage disk(s), any files that are no longer important or that you will not use in the future with the help of rm command or you can fslint tool to find and delete unwanted files in Linux.
4. If your root partition is getting full, you can resize root partition using LVM, it should be pretty straight.

Note: In case you delete any important file, you can recover the deleted file in Linux.

In this article, we have talked about a number of useful command line utilities for displaying storage disk partition table and monitoring space usage.

If there is any important command line utility for the same purpose, that we have left out? Let us know via the comment section below. You can possibly ask a question or provide us feedback as well.

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