Mastering File Management: Top 10 Largest Files and Directories in Linux

The article provides a straightforward guide on how to find the largest top 10 files and directories in a Linux system. It introduces four essential commands: du for estimating file space usage, sort for organizing text files or input data, head for displaying the first part of files, and find for searching files on the Linux machine. Additionally, the article touches upon locating the largest folders and directories, understanding the top-most directory in Linux, and finding the largest directories specifically in Linux. The content is concise and seems aimed at users who have a basic understanding of Linux commands.

How do I find the top 10 files in Linux?

Find the Largest Top 10 Files and Directories On a Linux
  1. Du command: It estimates file space usage.
  2. Sort command: Sort lines of text files or given input data.
  3. Head command: Output the first part of files i.e. to display the first 10 largest files.
  4. Find command: It Searches files on a Linux machine.

How do I find my largest folders?

Here’s how to find your largest files.
  1. Open File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer).
  2. Select “This PC” in the left pane so you can search your whole computer.
  3. Type “size: ” into the search box and select Gigantic.
  4. Select “details” from the View tab.
  5. Click the Size column to sort by largest to smallest.

What is the top most directory in Linux? / : The top level directory in your system. It’s called the root directory, because it’s the root of the system: all the rest of the directory structure emanates from it like branches from the root of a tree.

How do I find the largest directories in Linux?

How to Find Biggest Files and Directories in Linux
  1. du command: Estimate file space usage.
  2. a : Displays all files and folders.
  3. sort command : Sort lines of text files.
  4. -n : Compare according to string numerical value.
  5. -r : Reverse the result of comparisons.
  6. head : Output the first part of files.

How do I find the top 10 files in Linux? – Additional Questions

How do I check the size of a directory in Linux?

To get the total size of a directory in Linux, you can use the du (disk-usage) command.

How do I see all directories in Linux?

The ls command is used to list files or directories in Linux and other Unix-based operating systems. Just like you navigate in your File explorer or Finder with a GUI, the ls command allows you to list all files or directories in the current directory by default, and further interact with them via the command line.

How do I sort directories by size in Unix?

We can use du and sort commands to list and sort files according to their size: $ du -ah –max-depth=1 | sort -h 451M ./dir2 751M ./dir1 1.2G ./file4.

How do I find large files on Linux?

Finding the 10 Largest Linux Files on Your Drive
  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Use the du command to search all files and then use two pipes to format the returned data. du -aBM will search all files and directories, returning their sizes in megabytes.
  3. Press Enter to run the command.

How do I find the size of a directory and subfolder in Linux?

Display the size of one or more directories, subdirectories, and files by using the du command. Sizes are displayed in 512-byte blocks. Displays the size of each directory that you specify, including each subdirectory beneath it.

How do I check the size of a directory in Unix?

How to view the file size of a directory. To view the file size of a directory pass the -s option to the du command followed by the folder. This will print a grand total size for the folder to standard output.

How do I find the size of a folder?

You can display the size of directories by using the du command and its options. Additionally, you can find the amount of disk space taken up by user accounts on local UFS file systems by using the quot command. For more information about these commands, see du(1M)and quot(1M).

How do I check the size of a folder?

Go to Windows Explorer and right-click on the file, folder or drive that you’re investigating. From the menu that appears, go to Properties. This will show you the total file/drive size. A folder will show you the size in writing, a drive will show you a pie chart to make it easier to see.

How do I see multiple folders size?

Here, if you want to check the size of multiple folders, you can press Ctrl key and select all the folders. Then right-click and select Properties. In the pop-up folder properties window, you can see the total size of the selected folders.

How can I list directories and their sizes in command prompt?

Specifically, du -l 1 should show the size of each subdirectory of the current directory. For more information, run du without any parameters.

How do you list files size wise in Linux?

To list all files and sort them by size, use the -S option. By default, it displays output in descending order (biggest to smallest in size). You can output the file sizes in human-readable format by adding the -h option as shown. And to sort in reverse order, add the -r flag as follows.

How do I sort directories in Linux?

Simply open the Nautilus File Manager and click on the Files menu in the top bar.
  1. Then select the Preferences option from the File menu; this will open the Preferences window in the “Views” view.
  2. Select the sort order through this view and your file and folder names will now be sorted in this order.

Which directory is taking up more space ubuntu?

Check which folders use the highest disk space in linux
  1. Command. du -h <dir> 2>/dev/null | grep ‘[0-9. ]+G’
  2. Explanation. du -h. Shows the directory and the sizes of each in a human readable format.
  3. That’s it. Keep this command in your favorite command lists, it will be needed at really random times.

How do I sort folders?

Sort Files and Folders

In the desktop, click or tap the File Explorer button on the taskbar. Open the folder that contains the files you want to group. Click or tap the Sort by button on the View tab. Select a sort by option on the menu.

How do I list subfolders in Linux?

If you name one or more directories on the command line, ls will list each one. The -R (uppercase R) option lists all subdirectories, recursively. That shows you the whole directory tree starting at the current directory (or the directories you name on the command line).

How do I list directories in Bash?

Use the ls Command to List Directories in Bash. We use the ls command to list items in the current directory in Bash. However, we can use */ to print directories only since all directories finish in a / with the -d option to assure that only the directories’ names are displayed rather than their contents.

How do I get a list of all folders and subfolders?

Substitute dir /A:D. /B /S > FolderList. txt to produce a list of all folders and all subfolders of the directory. WARNING: This can take a while if you have a large directory.