Linux command line tools: df and du [closed]

Question

What are these abbreviations for? Disk space Free? Disk Usage?

Answer 1

That's generally how most people think of them, yes, but note that unix commands aren't necessarily abbreviations. They're simply intended to be short and quick to type. If that can be done in a manner that closely preserves the name, bonus.

Answer 2

• df = disk free
• du = disk usage

The general purpose of these utilities should be available in the man pages:

man du df

(if you have man pages installed!) Having said that, on Linux, the man pages say:

• du - estimate file space usage
• df - report file system disk space usage

which isn't as helpful as all that.

OTOH, the Unix Version 7 manual pages said:

• df – disk free
• du – summarize disk usage