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I'm looking for a GUI program that can parse du output and show both a browseable file tree and a treemap.

So far i've tried:

  • xdiskusage, xdu (Linux only, ugly GUI, no tree view)
  • WinDirStat, kdirstat | k4dirstat, GdMAP (no du output support)
  • JDiskReport (freeware, only supports a custom binary format)
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  • Does baobab not meet your needs? (EDIT: Oh, you want something cross-platform...?)
    – ewhac
    Dec 4, 2013 at 23:03
  • yep, better if cross-platform.. Also, are you sure baobab can read du output?
    – eadmaster
    Dec 5, 2013 at 7:48
  • No baobab can not read du output files.. Much to its loss, as I often want to examine and compare du output from other systems, or from the past to see what changed. Du output is a very simple format, but one that can represent a lot of information. It is a shame it has so few graphical display and analysers for it.
    – anthony
    Oct 30, 2017 at 1:05
  • Someone really should implement this. It's incredibly useful and future-proof. I don't want someone to reinvent the wheel like kdirstat, ncdu or duc. #unixphilosophy
    – Sridhar Sarnobat
    Jul 22, 2020 at 1:26

1 Answer 1

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The Python tool tkdu does this, mostly. It has only the treemap, and requires a specific du format (du -ak). I use it to view du-generated reports created on headless Linux servers on Windows and OS X clients.

It appears the original web site is unavailable (archived). You can also get the original version, as well as one with a few minor improvements, from my fork on GitHub (original version).

The original version has a few drawbacks I fixed, including limited du report support: Only on Linux (and OS X?) could it read du output supplied via standard in (e.g. tkdu.py < du-ak-report.log). I added the ability to accept plain and gzipped files containing du output when dropped onto the script file (Windows Explorer) and as command-line argument (everywhere).

My fork has a few quirks, not sure whether they appy to the original as well:

  • Observed on Windows: you need to middle-click to zoom out (IIRC I fixed the original's equivalent issue on OS X, which broke behavior on Windows).
  • Observed on Windows: When double-clicking the title bar to maximize, you might zoom into a subtree. Safer to click the maximize button.
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  • I'd like to have a tree view for easier navigation like in WinDirStat. Btw since it is written in python i might try to fork and add it if no better option is available...
    – eadmaster
    Dec 5, 2013 at 8:35
  • Hi Daniel, why is this question not off topic on Superuser? It seems as if I have a bigger problem in the understanding of On / Off Topic.
    – bummi
    Dec 5, 2013 at 11:42
  • @bummi Going by the letter of the law, err, rules, then yes, this asks for a software recommendation. However, it's trivially easy to interpret or rephrase this as a real question like "How can I visualize du output" (and that's how I answered it), and in these cases I usually don't close the question, and often edit it. Others might see this differently: you'll often find debates on the treatment of individual questions on Meta Super User. And if you consider this is off topic, feel free to flag it as such, so others can review it.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Dec 5, 2013 at 19:55

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