Provided by: qdirstat_1.8-1_amd64 
NAME
QDirStat - Qt-based directory statistics
DESCRIPTION
QDirStat is a graphical application to show where your disk space has gone and to help you to clean it
up.
USAGE
qdirstat [OPTION]... [<directory-name>]
qdirstat --cache|-c <cache-file-name>
qdirstat pkg:/<pkg-spec>
qdirstat unpkg:/<dir>
OPTIONS
-h|--help
Show a summary of command line options on stdout. That information might be more up-to-date than
this man page.
-s|--slow-update
Slow down display updates during directory reading. This is useful when running QDirStat over a
remote X11 connection.
The exact update interval is specified in the SlowUpdateMillisec parameter in the [DirectoryTree]
section of the configuration file. The default is 3000 milliseconds (3 seconds).
-d|--dont-ask
Don't prompt for a directory to read upon program start even if no directory was specified on the
command line.
-c|--cache <cache-file-name>
Read the content of a directory tree from a cache file that was generated by QDirStat's "Write to
Cache File" option or by the qdirstat-cache-writer script.
A file .qdirstat.cache.gz in the directory that it describes is automatically picked up and used:
A cache file /data/archive/foo/.qdirstat.cache.gz with the content of /data/archive/foo is used
automatically when found while reading a directory tree containing it.
NORMAL OPERATION
You start the program without any parameters; then it will open a directory selection box to let you
choose an existing directory. Alternatively, you can specify the path of an existing directory as a
command line parameter.
The program will then start reading that directory tree, i.e. it will recursively traverse that directory
tree and read information for each directory and its subdirectories.
The result is displayed in a tree view where you can open and close branches. The tree view displays
information such as the accumulated size of each subtree, the number of items, the number of files, the
latest modification time ("mtime") in that subtree, and some more. You can sort the tree by each of those
columns.
You can select one or more items in the tree view to get more detailed information or to start "cleanup
actions": Move to trash, remove immediately (caution!), create a gzipped tarball from a directory, "make
clean", open a file manager window with that directory or start a shell there - and more. Use the context
menu (right mouse button) or the "Clean Up" menu in the menu bar (you can "tear off" that menu so it
remains open).
There are three predefined column layouts L1, L2, L3 where you can switch what columns are displayed and
whether or not to display the details panel at the right.
Right-click on a column header to show or hide individual columns or to switch between automatic column
width and a user-defined width (drag the column divider in the header). You can rearrange the order of
columns with drag and drop (but the "Name" column will always remain fixed at the very left side).
THE TREEMAP
As a secondary view, there is a "treemap" with colored rectangles ("tiles"). The area of each of those
tiles corresponds to its size; the larger a tile, the larger the item. So you can spot a large file
buried deep down in the directory hierarchy easily.
The color of each tile corresponds to its type ("MIME category"). There are number of predefined
categories such as images (photos etc.), videos, music etc.; they can be configured in the configuration
dialog (menu "Edit" -> "Configure QDirStat").
PKG URLS / PACKAGES VIEW
Specifying a pkg:/ URL at the command line starts the packages view that groups files by the software
package they belong to.
The package specification in the pkg:/ URL is case insensitive.
Some heuristics are used to determine what mode to use: The default is "starts with", but if the search
pattern contains typical regexp special characters, it interprets the pattern as a regular expression.
If it detects just "*" (not ".*") or "?", it uses wildcard mode.
If the first character is "=", it uses exact matching.
qdirstat pkg:/chrom
This shows all packages starting with "chrom" or "Chrom" or "CHROM".
qdirstat pkg:/=emacs
This shows only package "emacs", not "emacs25" or any other one starting with "emacs".
qdirstat "pkg:/*gtk*"
This shows all packages that have "gtk" somewhere in their name.
Notice that you have to protect the "*" wildcards from the shell by escaping them with quotes.
qdirstat "pkg:/.*qt[45].*"
This shows all Qt4 or Qt5 packages.
qdirstat "pkg:/(firefox|mozilla|chrome|chromium|opera)"
This shows all the well-known browsers on the system. Notice that regular expressions use a
partial match, so use the "^" and "$" anchors when appropriate.
UNPKG URLS / UNPACKAGED FILES VIEW
Specifying an unpkg:/ URL at the command line starts the "unpackaged files" view: This reads the
specified directory and ignores files that are owned by an installed software package.
Some well-known directories that are known to contain only unpackaged files are excluded by default, and
some file types are ignored by default:
/home user home directories
/root home directory of the root user
/tmp directory for temporary files
/var variable data for all kinds of software
/usr/lib/sysimage/rpm RPM database
/usr/local locally installed software
*.pyc compiled Python files
This list can be modified when starting the unpackaged files view from the menu. Starting the view from
the command line uses the same settings that were used last time when using the menu.
qdirstat unpkg:/
This shows the unpackaged files of the complete root filesystem.
qdirstat unpkg:/usr/share
This shows the unpackaged files of /usr/share.
FILES
~/.config/QDirStat/QDirStat-cleanup.conf cleanup actions configuration
~/.config/QDirStat/QDirStat-exclude.conf exclude rules configuration
~/.config/QDirStat/QDirStat-mime.conf MIME categories configuration
~/.config/QDirStat/QDirStat.conf general configuration
/tmp/qdirstat-$USER/qdirstat.log current / last log file
/tmp/qdirstat-$USER/qdirstat-*.old previous log files
**/.qdirstat.cache.gz auto-used cache file
It is safe to delete any or all of the configuration files; the next program start will restore them with
default settings.
The configuration files can safely be edited while QDirStat is not running. Many parameters can be
accessed via GUI, but some (the more arcane ones) can only be changed by editing a configuration file
manually.