Visualize Linux Disk Usage with Filelight: Installation and Quick Guide

What is Filelight?

Filelight is a free, open‑source KDE application that visualizes disk usage as concentric colored rings, allowing users to quickly identify which directories consume the most space.

Installation on Various Linux Distributions

Filelight is included in the official repositories of most distributions, so it can be installed with the default package manager:

Arch Linux, Manjaro, etc.: sudo pacman -S filelight Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint: sudo apt install filelight Fedora: sudo dnf install filelight openSUSE:

sudo zypper install filelight

Launching and Using Filelight

After installation, start Filelight from the desktop menu or run it from a terminal. The main window shows a radial diagram of the root filesystem (/) and the EFI partition (/boot/efi) by default.

Users can scan any folder via Filelight → Scan → Scan Folder… . The tool automatically excludes virtual or privileged directories such as /dev, /proc, /sys, and /root, but additional paths can be added in Filelight → Settings → Scan .

Hovering over a segment displays the exact size, and clicking a segment opens the corresponding directory in the file manager, making it easy to locate large files.

Customization

Appearance settings are available under Filelight → Settings → Appearance , where users can change color schemes to suit their preferences.

Additional Capabilities

Filelight can also analyze remote and removable disks and integrates with KDE file managers such as Konqueror, Dolphin, and Krusader.

Conclusion

Filelight provides a user‑friendly, graphical alternative to command‑line tools like du, enabling quick identification and cleanup of space‑hogs without needing complex options.