Ubuntu QA:
BlogBrainstormPackage status
Log in
Ubuntu QA
The Ubuntu community has contributed 21549 ideas, 132424 comments, 2606791 votes
Idea sandbox Idea sandbox
Popular ideas Popular ideas
Ideas in development Ideas in development
Implemented ideas Implemented ideas
Idea #15582: Show total content size of folder in Nautilus

Written by lawenlerk the 13 Nov 08 at 13:55. Related project: Nautilus. Status: New
Rationale
Wouldn't it be better if for example, when u highlight a folder in nautilus, the total size of the whole folder is shown on the bottom bar of nautilus also and not just the number of files in it?

Nautilus shows the file size when u highlight a single file but not for a folder and i think it may be useful if it showed the size for folders too.

edit: this should be an option for users who need it and people who are using laptops or slower machines may disable it to save processing power and battery power

Please tell me what you think.

Thank you.

252
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #15582
Written by lawenlerk the 13 Nov 08 at 13:55.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #15582 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

Propose your solution

Attachments
No attachments.


Duplicates


Comments
wleoncio wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 15:22
It really bugs me having to check the folder preferences to know that.

Eldmannen wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 16:11
Yeah, this would increase usability.
I noticed this several times, and it bothered me.

urandom wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 16:20
This will be quite a bit slower than just getting the number of files in the selected directory. You will have to recursively get the size of each file in the hierarchy if directories, whereas with count, you just have to get the count of the immediate children, without stating them.

I'd rather not have my hard drive scoured each time I select a directory. With key navigation, that tends to happen quite a lot per second.

wleoncio wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 17:04
urandom, so maybe it would be a good idea to have it as a check option for Nautilus, what do you think?

amar.kamat wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 17:48
I posted a similar idea [http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15596/] with the only difference of mouse move-over facility i.e display this info upon a mouse move-over

Habbit wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 18:32
The problem with this idea is that it would severely drain laptop batteries and/or congest networks when over SMB/NFS. This should be implemented as an optional switch.

MunkyJunky wrote on the 13 Nov 08 at 18:36
I'd love this feature to be included, but as said previously - it would slow up your system, so disabled by default, but the option to enable it for those of us who want it.

slsolaris wrote on the 14 Nov 08 at 05:25
it is a good idea to show BOTH of them

lawenlerk wrote on the 14 Nov 08 at 06:51
thanks for the comments..

i agree with all of you, this should be included as an option so that it wouldn't waste processing power and batteries for those who don't need it.

then when we need it, for example when we are sorting through photos, or lots of files and folders etc, we can just turn it on.

wearzeep wrote on the 16 Nov 08 at 02:08
It should be there as an option, and the result should be cached, I think Windows does that.

sowelie wrote on the 18 Nov 08 at 03:18
Windows doesn't show the folder size in the status bar does it? I think this is a bad idea, it will hinder performance, even on fast machines. Just right click on the folder and hit properties...or if you're searching for folders that consume space, use the Disk Usage Analyzer.

nickpick wrote on the 25 Dec 08 at 03:28
+1

This should work with file-indexing enabled. If your system already has a list of all files and folders, it should also be able to list their cashed sizes.

AntiBodies wrote on the 13 Apr 09 at 12:04
really a gnome thing and i highly doubt they would put a checkbox for it.. gnome hate checkboxes for anything this minor

anyway i dont think it would be to hard but like people have said it could take a long time for some folders and you would need to sensibly control it so it doesnt start enumerating large network folders.. i would say just local

but if you go to the terminal go to some folder and type:

du -h | tail -n1

this gives you the size of that folder.. it doesnt take that long really even at the root.. it also seems to cache the results as subsequent times are quicker.. du is stated as only an estimate as well which is best as accuracy isnt that necessary

so basically this should easily be implemented using already existing code

BackSeeDaa wrote on the 8 May 09 at 05:50

If checkboxes are out of the question, perhaps it would be a good idea to integrate a keyboard shortcut.

For example, holding down Ctrl+Alt (...Ctrl+R.Click? ...Ctrl+Special?) whilst selecting folders forces the use of additional resources to include the total size of contents in the status bar.

As such, processing power wouldn't be wasted by default and the tasks that demand more of Nautilus in terms of file juggling would be less tedious. I agree with AntiBodies - accuracy is rarely important. It would certainly be quicker than opening folder properties every few seconds, which is cumbersome and no less demanding of processing power (more so, in fact).

When I'm running my laptop on a battery, I want to waste as little time as possible messing around with my crappy little touch pad!

Bashar wrote on the 12 Mar 11 at 14:19
if i may add with an option also to show a column that has sizes of folders where we can actually sort, it could be advanced option for users who likes cleaning up

its basically something like du -sk *|sort -n inside a folder or du -sh * in a folder


Post your comment