The ls command is used to list directory contents under Linux and Unix like operating systems. If no options or operands are given, the contents of the current directory are displayed on the screen. By default entries are sorted alphabetically if none of the -cftuvSUX nor --sort option passed to the ls command.
The default output (sort by alphabetically)
Type the following command:
$ ls
$ ls *.py
$ ls *.avi
Sample outputs:
Force sort by size option
You need to pass the -S or --sort=size option as follows:
$ ls -S
$ ls -S -l
$ ls --sort=size -l
$ ls --sort=size *.avi
$ ls -S -l *.avi
Sample outputs:
You will see largest file first before sorting the operands in lexicographical order. The following command will sort file size in reverse order:
$ ls -l -S | sort -k 5 -n
OR try (see comments below, thanks!):
$ ls -lSr
Sample outputs:
Sort output and print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G)
Pass the -h option to the ls command as follows:
$ ls -lSh
$ ls -l -S -h *.avi
$ ls -l -S -h ~/Downloads/*.mp4 | more
See ls(1) for more information.
24 comment
Instead of
$ ls -l -S | sort -k 5 -n
this works also
$ ls -l -S -r
-r = reverse order
Or just do
ll -Sr
:)
ll is alias to ‘ls -l’. Although it it configured on many linux distros, it does not have to be and therefore not guaranteed to work.
Even better is:
$ ls -lrS
Raphael, Roy, and dru,
Thanks for the heads up. The faq has been updated.
what I do is this:
du -xak . | sort -n | tail -100
it finds me the biggest 100 files or directories on the filesystem I’m in
or du -csh * | sort -n | tail -100
incorrectly using lower case s in these examples:
$ ls -s
…
$ ls -s *.avi
ls -lhS in human readable format.Sorted in descending order
Thanks, it worked.
How would I perform a sort on my home directory by the size of the file??
Assuming you have an ls version that supports ‘–group-directories-first’ you can do:
It needs to be a capital S.
not
ls -lSrh
h makes the filesize a bit more readable :D
seriously, fix your “-s” typo or stop being the top hit on google :P
@foo and rest: Sorry about that :( The faq has been updated.
% ls -S
ls: illegal option — S
usage: ls -1RaAdCxmnlhogrtuvVcpFbqisfHLeE@ [files]
That’s more than likely Solaris. However, if you have coreutils installed you can do ‘gls -S’ ;-)
The one thing I find most annoying about Linux “ls” is the fact that it (at least on Ubuntu) it sorts things in alphabetical order, no matter if it’s a dot file, or capitalized, or whatever. This highly offends my BSD-like sensibilities and makes me think linux “ls” belongs to DOS.
Is there a way to make it stop this vile and pernicous behavior? ;)
Don’t have a Linux box right now to test but I think you’re looking for this:
http://superuser.com/questions/448291/how-can-i-make-ls-show-dotfiles-first
Cool — I’ll check it out.
i think you may alias it
alias ‘ls=ls -lrt’ and put this instrcutionion into your .profile so that everytime you open a session ls will get replaced by ls -lrt
I also like this one:
*) ls –sort=size -sh
no option for -S in SunOS 5.10 sun4v sparc
$ ls -lSrls: illegal option -- S
neither the below:
$ ls --sort=size -lls: illegal option -- sort=size