Discus – Show Colourised Disk Space Usage in Linux

In our last article, we have explained how to use df (disk filesystem) utility to report file system disk space usage in Linux. We have discovered yet a another great utility for the same purpose but with a prettier output, called discus.

Discus is a df-like, highly configurable utility for checking disk space utilization in Linux, intended to make df prettier with fancy features such as colored output, bar graphs, and smart formatting of numbers. To configure it, you may copy its main configuration file /etc/discusrc to ~/.discusrc and do your customization in there.

Read Also: Pydf an Alternative “df” Command to Check Disk Usage in Different Colours

The package discus is available to install from the default system repositories using package manager on Linux distribution as shown.

$ sudo apt install discus	#Debian/UBuntu
$ sudo yum install discus	#RHEL/CentOS
$ sudo dnf install discus	#Fedora 22+

After installing discus, learn how to use discus with the following examples.

Discus Command Examples

Run the discus command with the default settings.

$ discus

To disable the color, use the -c flag.

$ discus -c

To display device names instead of graphs, use the -d flag:.

$ discus -d

If do not want to use smart formatting, you can disable it using the -s switch as shown.

$ discus -s

You can specify the number of digits to right of decimal place using the -p flag.

$ discus -p 3

To display sizes in kilobytes, gigabytes, megabytes, or terabytes use the -k, -g, -m, or -t flags respectively. For example.

$ discus -m

Last but not least, if you want to configure it to your preference, copy its main configuration file /etc/discusrc to ~/.discusrc as shown.

$ sudo cp /etc/discusrc ~/.discusrc

Then open the newly created file and perform your customization.

$ vim ~/.discusrc

For more information, see the discus man page.

$ man discus 

You may also like to read these following useful articles on Linux disk space usage.

1. 10 Useful du (Disk Usage) Commands to Find Disk Usage of Files and Directories
2. How to Find Out Top Directories and Files (Disk Space) in Linux

That’s all! Discus is a simple utility intended to make df command prettier. Try it out and let us know of thoughts in the comments section below.