When trying to check file sizes in a directory using du -hm, many users encounter the error:

du: cannot access -': No such file or directory

This typically happens when piping commands incorrectly. The xargs approach shown in the example won't work because du expects file paths, not piped output in that format.

To properly check file sizes in megabytes:

du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/*

This will show each file's size in MB format. The -h makes it human-readable, while -m forces MB units.

For more detailed analysis, consider these variants:

# Show sizes sorted by largest files first
du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/* | sort -nr

# Show only files larger than 10MB
du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/* | awk '$1 > 10'

# Summarize directory totals
du -hm --max-depth=1 /usr/local/apache2/logs/

When dealing with spaces in filenames or many files:

# Handle spaces in filenames
find /usr/local/apache2/logs/ -type f -exec du -hm {} +

# For directories with thousands of files
find /usr/local/apache2/logs/ -type f | xargs du -hm

For very large directories, find with -exec will be more reliable than shell expansion with *. The + terminator for -exec is more efficient than \; as it passes multiple files to du at once.

Many Linux users try to check file sizes with commands like:

ll /usr/local/apache2/logs/ | xargs | du -hm -
du: cannot access -': No such file or directory

This fails because du doesn't process piped input in the expected way.

To see sizes of all files in a directory in megabytes:

du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/*

This will display each file's size in MB format with a full path.

Using find with du

For more control, combine find with du:

find /usr/local/apache2/logs/ -type f -exec du -hm {} \;

Sorting by File Size

Add sort to identify largest files:

du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/* | sort -nr

Including Hidden Files

The basic wildcard (*) won't catch hidden files. To include them:

du -hm /usr/local/apache2/logs/.* /usr/local/apache2/logs/*

Checking Log File Sizes

du -hm /var/log/*.log | sort -nr | head -10

Monitoring Specific File Types

du -hm /home/user/Downloads/*.iso

For directories with thousands of files, these alternatives are faster:

ls -lhS /path/to/dir | head -20  # Human-readable sorted listing
find /path/to/dir -type f -printf "%s %p\n" | sort -nr | head -20