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

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

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

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

sudo find -printf '%s %p\n'| sort -nr | head -10

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

sudo find -type f -printf '%s %p\n'| sort -nr | head -10

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:

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

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

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

du -S . | sort -n | head -10

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

sudo du -S /var | sort -n | head -10

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

ls -lSr | head -10

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

sudo ls -lSr /var | head -10