====== Ubuntu - Directory - Find largest and smallest directories ======

===== Find Largest Directories And Files =====

To find out the top largest ten directories and files in the current working directory, just run:

<code bash>
sudo du -a | sort -n -r | head -n 10
</code>


Where,

  * du : Disk usage command that estimates file space usage
  * -a : Displays all directories and files
  * sort : Sort lines of text files
  * -n : Compare according to string numerical value
  * -r : Reverse the result of comparisons
  * head : Output the first part of files
  * -n 10 : Print the first 10

To view the above result in human-readable format (in Kb, MB, GB etc), just add the parameter “h” as shown below.

<code bash>
sudo du -ah | sort -n -r | head -n 10
</code>

As you see in the above results, we have listed all files and directories and its sub-directories in the current working directory.

To display the largest directories and files of a particular directory, for example /var, run:

<code bash>
sudo du /var -a | sort -n -r | head -n 10
</code>

To display the above results in human-readable format, add “-h” parameter:

<code bash>
sudo du -ah /var | sort -n -r | head -n 10
</code>

Let us find out the largest files in the current working directory and its sub-directories:

<code bash>
sudo find -printf '%s %p\n'| sort -nr | head -10
</code>

You can skip the directories and display only the files by adding “-type f” flag in the above command:

<code bash>
sudo find -type f -printf '%s %p\n'| sort -nr | head -10
</code>

To find out the largest files in a specific directory (Ex. /var) and its sub-directories just mention the path of the directory as shown below:

<code bash>
sudo find /var -printf '%s %p\n'| sort -nr | head -10
</code>

You have now basic idea about how to find the largest files and directories. 


<code bash>
du -a -h –max-depth=1 | sort -hr
</code>

----

===== Find Smallest Directories And Files =====

To view the top ten smallest directories in the current working directory, run:

<code bash>
du -S . | sort -n | head -10
</code>

To view the smallest directories in a specific location, for example /var, run:

<code bash>
sudo du -S /var | sort -n | head -10
</code>

To view the top ten smallest files only in the current working directory, run:

<code bash>
ls -lSr | head -10
</code>

Likewise, to view the top ten smallest files only in a specific directory, for example /var, just run:

<code bash>
sudo ls -lSr /var | head -10
</code>