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

sudo du -a | sort -n -r | head -n 10

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.

sudo du -ah | sort -n -r | head -n 10

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:

sudo du /var -a | sort -n -r | head -n 10