# diskhog
[](https://crates.io/crates/diskhog)
[](https://docs.rs/diskhog)
[](https://github.com/wabuntu/diskhog/actions/workflows/rust.yml)
TUI that lists the largest files on disk and lets you delete the ones you
pick — either to the trash, or for real — with each file's size and its
share of total disk space shown right in the list.
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wabuntu/diskhog/main/docs/list.png" alt="diskhog listing the largest files under a directory, ranked by size with each file's share of total disk space" width="480">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wabuntu/diskhog/main/docs/confirm.png" alt="diskhog's delete confirmation dialog, showing the exact path and size before moving a file to the trash" width="480">
```
$ diskhog / # scan the whole filesystem
$ diskhog ~/Downloads # or any directory
$ diskhog --top 200 /var # show more than the default 30
$ diskhog --max-cpu 60 /var # allow a bigger/smaller worker pool than the default 30%
```
The directory is required — `diskhog` never picks a scan target for you.
Stays on the filesystem it started on — it won't wander into `/proc`,
`/sys`, other mounted disks, or network shares. Symlinks are skipped so they
can't be followed off the filesystem or double-count another file's size.
The walk itself is parallel (via the [`ignore`](https://docs.rs/ignore)
crate — the same walker ripgrep uses), capped by default to ~30% of
available cores so a scan doesn't try to claim the whole machine —
adjustable with `--max-cpu <1-100>` — with a live "N files scanned so far"
counter printed while it runs.
## Performance
A sample run on an Ubuntu desktop, finding the 30 largest files under `/`:
```
$ time sudo find / -type f -printf '%s %p\n' | sort -rn | head -30
...
real 0m12.125s
user 0m2.417s
sys 0m0.290s
$ time sudo diskhog /
...
real 0m0.994s
user 0m0.005s
sys 0m0.020s
```
diskhog finished about 12x faster than the `find | sort | head` approach —
the parallel walk and bounded top-N heap avoid both sorting every file in
the tree and holding the whole listing in memory at once.
## Deleting always asks, and always asks which way
Selecting a file and pressing Enter/`d` shows a confirmation dialog with
the exact path and size, and two ways to actually remove it:
- `t` — move to the trash (via the [`trash`](https://docs.rs/trash) crate,
following the freedesktop.org trash spec on Linux), recoverable like
anything else you deleted by hand. **This does not free disk space** — on
the file's own filesystem it's a same-filesystem rename, so the data
blocks stay allocated until the trash itself is emptied.
- `p` — permanently delete it (an actual unlink). Frees the space
immediately; no way back.
Any other key cancels.
## Install
- Cargo: `cargo install diskhog`
- Debian package: https://github.com/wabuntu/diskhog/tree/main/target/debian
- RPM package: https://github.com/wabuntu/diskhog/tree/main/target/release/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64
- Single binary: https://github.com/wabuntu/diskhog/tree/main/binaries
## Usage
Keys:
- `↑`/`↓`: move the selection
- `Enter` / `d`: open the delete confirmation for the selected file
- `t`: move it to the trash (recoverable, space not freed)
- `p`: permanently delete it (frees space, no undo)
- any other key: cancel the pending delete
- `q` / `Esc`: quit
Flags:
- `--top <N>`: how many of the largest files to show (default 30)
- `--max-cpu <1-100>`: cap the scan's worker threads to this percentage of
available cores (default 30)