dutree is slow compared to du about dutree HOT 2 OPEN

Thanks for your suggestions, they make sense. That being said, I don't think you can exactly compare both programs, since dutree needs to do other things such as order the results recursively. print the tree and color the output according to the file extension.

Another good improvement would be to actually use pointers for the tree structure.

from dutree.

dutree is horribly slow in comparison to anything else frankly. Even a full blown GNOME graphical tool is faster (baobob). ncdu rips through the directory. I simply gave up on dutree ever returning anything useful for anything more than a trivial directory. I'm running this against an SD card with horrible access times so the OP seems to be spot on with his deductions. That or your algos are quadratic.

from dutree.