How to output all files/folders ordered by size, including hidden ones

Henke

11/30/23, 4:59 PM

How can I output all files/directories, ordered by size, including hidden ones
(those whose name starts with a dot), all in one go? ¹

The difference to How can I sort du -h output by size is that I'm requesting an output
that includes all files and directories – whether hidden or not.

References

^{¹
By size of a directory, I mean the sum of all file sizes
in the directory and all of its subdirectory tree.}

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linux

files

sort

directory-listing

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Henke

11/30/23, 4:59 PM

How can I output all files/directories, ordered by size, including hidden ones?

Use the du (disk usage) command, which is part of GNU coreutils : ¹

du -hs -- * .[^.]* | sort -h

The .[^.]* regular expression makes sure that hidden files and directories are included.

To list only hidden files and directories :

du -hs -- .[^.]* | sort -h

Some more cases

List only directories, sorted increasing in size :

du -hs -- */ .[^.]*/ | sort -h

List only files, sorted increasing in size : ²

ls -AhlS | grep '^-' | tac

List only hidden files, sorted increasing in size :

ls -hldS .* | grep '^-' | tac

List only regular files, sorted increasing in size :

ls -lS | grep '^-' | tac

References

^{¹
I gratefully attribute my solution to this comment.
The -- argument marks the end of options.

The du command can be painfully slow for very large files/folders.
Consider using the ncdu command instead.

To install on a Debian derivative, including Ubuntu, run:
sudo apt install -y ncdu.

On Arch Linux, including MSYS2, run:
yes | pacman -Syu ncdu.

To use it, type ncdu, and press ↵.
²
The -h flag of ls outputs the file sizes in
a human-readable style.

The -S flag sorts the output in the order of decreasing size.

The pipe | grep '^-' excludes directories and symbolic links.

The pipe | tac reverses the output.}

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EN: How to output all files/folders ordered by size, including hidden ones

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