agedu

agedu is a free Unix utility for finding where substantial disk use coincides with older access times. It best suits Linux users who can review text or HTML reports and make their own cleanup decisions. Its age-focused reports help prioritize an investigation, but they do not establish that a file is safe to remove.

Overview

By relating directory-tree usage to file last-access times, agedu helps distinguish large, recently used data from large data that may have fallen out of use. That makes it a practical cleanup aid when age matters as much as size. You can create text and HTML reports or serve a navigable HTML report through agedu’s miniature web server.

This is a focused utility, not a broad visual disk analyzer: it has no treemap, application-size view, or file-type breakdown. Choose it for access-age investigations, not when you need those other ways to understand storage.

Key features

• Age-filtered text reports: Set a threshold, such as six months, to show files not accessed since then. This can make a large scan more actionable, though the results remain candidates to examine rather than a deletion list.
• Colour-coded HTML: The report ranges from red for disused data to green for recently accessed data. The colour cue helps compare access age, but does not replace the missing treemap or file-type views.
• Flexible scan scope: Scans can cross filesystem boundaries and include, exclude, or prune files and directories. These controls are useful for targeting relevant locations rather than treating every path alike.
• Transferable results: Dump scan results as text on one machine and load them into an index on another, even across differing CPU architectures. This separates scanning from report generation when work spans machines.
• Security-conscious handling, with a caveat: Index files use restrictive permissions because they can expose confidential filesystem information. The built-in web server uses Linux user-based access checks by default, or HTTP Basic authentication with an invented password when those checks are unavailable; CGI mode has no access control of its own, so access must be restricted by the web server.

Pricing

agedu is free: its plan costs nothing and the utility is distributed under the MIT licence, which permits copying, redistribution, use, and reuse. There is no paid tier to add capabilities, and no trial is needed. The trade-off is that this is a Unix utility rather than a packaged, cross-platform disk-analysis suite.

Platforms

agedu runs on Linux and produces HTML reports viewable in a web browser. It has no native Windows port. A separate Windows scan utility can produce a dump for loading into agedu on a Unix machine, so Windows users can contribute scan data but need a Unix system for agedu itself.

The maker describes the utility as having had a small amount of beta testing, invites bug reports by email, and welcomes patches. Readers seeking a mature support arrangement should weigh that support model against their needs.

Who it's for

agedu is a good fit for Linux users who want to find large, potentially neglected data and are comfortable reviewing filesystem reports. Its scan controls suit users who need to limit or shape a directory-tree scan, while portable dumps help when scanning and report generation happen on different machines. It is not the right choice for someone who needs agedu to decide what can be deleted, or who requires native Windows operation or richer disk visualizations.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Access age is central to the analysis. Reports connect size with last-access time, and text output can be narrowed to a chosen age threshold.
• Pro: Scan scope and output are flexible. Cross-filesystem scans, include/exclude/prune controls, text and HTML reports, and transferable dumps support varied cleanup workflows.
• Pro: Free and permissively licensed. The MIT licence allows reuse as well as ordinary use and redistribution.
• Con: Results require human judgment. Aged data may still matter, and agedu cannot determine whether deletion is safe.
• Con: Its visual analysis is limited. There is no treemap, application-size view, or file-type breakdown.
• Con: Windows support is indirect. A separate utility can create a dump, but agedu itself has no native Windows port.

Alternatives

For a different way to investigate disk usage, browse Disk Space Analyzers. For Windows file transfer over SFTP, FTP, FTPS, SCP, WebDAV, or S3, choose WinSCP instead; it is a free, open-source Windows file transfer client, not an age-based disk analyzer.

If you need a broader terminal and file-management tool across many platforms, electerm offers a free MIT-licensed option with SSH, SFTP, FTP, Telnet, Serial, RDP, VNC, and Spice. For a free SSH and SFTP client with local vault and port forwarding, Termius is another option; its Starter plan also includes AI-powered autocomplete. Choose OpenSSH for a free SSH protocol suite available on Linux, macOS, self-hosted systems, and Windows, rather than for disk-usage reporting.

Readers comparing connection-management tools can also consider Royal TS, XPipe, Bast, or SecurSSH; their stated categories and capabilities differ from agedu’s access-age disk reports. See SSH Clients or Terminal Emulators for broader category lists.

Verdict

Choose agedu if you use Linux and want a free, flexible way to focus cleanup work on large data with older access times. Its text and colour-coded HTML reports make that specific investigation useful, but you must decide what can safely go, and Windows support and visual analysis are limited. Look elsewhere if you need a broader disk-analysis interface or native Windows operation.