Run du on parallel

bash, csh, du, parallel-processing

Solution

It is simple to do it using GNU Parallel:

parallel du ::: */*

Problem

I have a very big storage disk (16T). I want to run 'du' on it to figure out how much each subdirectory takes. However, that takes a very long time. Luckily, I have at my disposal a cluster of computers. I can therefore run 'du' on parallel, each job runs on a separate subdirectory, and write a simple script that does that. Is there already such a thing or must I write it myself?

Original source