Quick-note: Some useful combinations for disk usage sorting in the command line

Diego Carrasco G. — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Context

The du -h command shows disk usage in human-readable format. I usually use it as du -hs to get the total disk usage in a specific directory.

But there are some useful combinations I usually forget. Thus this note.

1. Sort by size (largest first)

du -h | sort -hr

This will output a list of all dirs , sorted by size, largest first. Example:

❯ du -h | sort -hr
156M    .
106M    ./.venv
79M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages
79M ./.venv/lib/python3.13
79M ./.venv/lib
33M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/babel
32M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/babel/locale-data
...
12M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip
12M ./.venv/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/lxml
9.9M    ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/setuptools
9.2M    ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pygments
8.3M    ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor
7.9M    ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pygments/lexers
7.5M    ./.venv/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/pillow.libs
6.8M    ./.venv/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/PIL
5.5M    ./nikola
4.8M    ./npm_assets/node_modules/bootstrap

2. Sort by size (smallest first)

du -h | sort -h

This will output a list of all dirs , sorted by size, smallest first. Example:

❯ du -h | sort -h
4.0K    ./.git/objects/info
4.0K    ./.git/refs/tags
4.0K    ./nikola/data/themes/bootblog4-jinja/assets/css
8.0K    ./.github/workflows
8.0K    ./.git/info
...
8.0K    ./.git/refs/heads
8.0K    ./.idea/inspectionProfiles
8.0K    ./nikola-baseline-build/cache/galleries/demo
8.0K    ./nikola-baseline-build/cache/posts
8.0K    ./nikola-baseline-build/files/images
8.0K    ./nikola-baseline-build/listings

3. Get the top 10 largest directories

du -h | sort -hr | head -10

This will output a list of the top 10 largest dirs, sorted by size, largest first. Example:

❯ du -h | sort -hr | head -10
156M    .
106M    ./.venv
79M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages
79M ./.venv/lib/python3.13
79M ./.venv/lib
33M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/babel
32M ./.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/babel/locale-data
27M ./.venv/lib64/python3.13/site-packages
27M ./.venv/lib64/python3.13
27M ./.venv/lib64

4. For the current directory only (not subdirectories)

du -sh * | sort -hr

This will output a list of all the dirs in the current dir, sorted by size, largest first. Example:

❯ du -sh * | sort -hr
16M npm_assets
5.5M    nikola
4.2M    nikola-baseline-build
664K    docs
512K    tests
280K    translations
120K    CHANGES.txt
108K    Nikola.egg-info
96K scripts
56K du-demo.cast
44K logo
8.0K    CONTRIBUTING.rst
8.0K    AUTHORS.txt
4.0K    snapcraft.yaml
4.0K    setup.py
4.0K    setup.cfg
4.0K    README.rst
4.0K    pyproject.toml
4.0K    MANIFEST.in
4.0K    LICENSE.txt
4.0K    dodo.py
4.0K    CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

5. Include hidden files/directories

du -sh .[^.]* * 2>/dev/null | sort -hr

Same as "4." but including hidden files and dirs

❯ du -sh .[^.]* * 2>/dev/null | sort -hr
106M    .venv
24M .git
16M npm_assets
5.5M    nikola
4.2M    nikola-baseline-build
664K    docs
512K    tests
280K    translations
120K    CHANGES.txt
108K    Nikola.egg-info
96K scripts
44K logo
36K .idea
32K .github
12K .pypt
8.0K    .tx
8.0K    CONTRIBUTING.rst
8.0K    AUTHORS.txt
4.0K    snapcraft.yaml
4.0K    setup.py
4.0K    setup.cfg
4.0K    .readthedocs.yaml
4.0K    README.rst
4.0K    pyproject.toml
4.0K    MANIFEST.in
4.0K    LICENSE.txt
4.0K    .gitignore
4.0K    .gitattributes
4.0K    .editorconfig
4.0K    dodo.py
4.0K    .coveragerc
4.0K    CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

6. Sort specific directory

du -h /path/to/directory | sort -hr

This will output a list of dirs, sorted by size, largest first, for a specific dir. Example:

❯ du -h nikola | sort -hr
5.5M    nikola
2.4M    nikola/data
2.0M    nikola/plugins
1.4M    nikola/data/themes
1.1M    nikola/data/samplesite
656K    nikola/plugins/command
568K    nikola/data/themes/base
524K    nikola/plugins/task
492K    nikola/__pycache__
436K    nikola/data/samplesite/files
392K    nikola/plugins/compile
256K    nikola/plugins/shortcode

7. One-level deep only

du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -hr

This will output a list of dirs, sorted by size, largest first, for a specific depth. Example:

❯ du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -hr
156M    .
106M    ./.venv
24M ./.git
16M ./npm_assets
5.5M    ./nikola
4.2M    ./nikola-baseline-build
664K    ./docs
512K    ./tests
280K    ./translations
108K    ./Nikola.egg-info
96K ./scripts
44K ./logo
36K ./.idea
32K ./.github
12K ./.pypt
8.0K    ./.tx

# You can also change the max depth.
❯ du -h --max-depth=2 | sort -hr
156M    .
106M    ./.venv
79M ./.venv/lib
27M ./.venv/lib64
24M ./.git/objects
24M ./.git
16M ./npm_assets/node_modules
16M ./npm_assets
5.5M    ./nikola
4.2M    ./nikola-baseline-build
2.4M    ./nikola/data
2.4M    ./nikola-baseline-build/output
2.0M    ./nikola/plugins

The flags

The -r flag reverses the sort order, and the -h flag in sort tells it to understand human-readable sizes (like 1K, 2M, 3G).

Diego A. Carrasco Gubernatis | Personal Website (Posts about terminal)