How to list the size of each file and directory and sort by descending size in Bash?

Simply navigate to directory and run following command:

du -a --max-depth=1 | sort -n

OR add -h for human readable sizes and -r to print bigger directories/files first.

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

linux file bash

Apparently --max-depth option is not in Mac OS X's version of the du command. You can use the following instead.

du -h -d 1 | sort -n

linux file bash

du -s -- * | sort -n

(this willnot show hidden (.dotfiles) files)

Use du -sm for Mb units etc. I always use

du -smc -- * | sort -n

because the total line (-c) will end up at the bottom for obvious reasons :)

See comments for handling dotfiles
I frequently use e.g. 'du -smc /home// | sort -n |tail' to get a feel of where exactly the large bits are sitting

CodeHunter