On 27/03/2026 09:58, Daniel wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to propose a small addition to du: a --sort=size flag that
automatically sorts output by size (descending) and limits depth to 1.
Motivation
The most common real-world use of du is finding what's consuming disk space
in a directory. The typical workflow is:
du -h --max-depth=1 /home | sort -rh
This requires piping to sort, which breaks --total, loses context when
combined with other flags, and is non-obvious for new users.
Proposed behavior
du -h --sort=size /home
- Implies --max-depth=1
- Sorts output by size, descending
- Compatible with -h, --time, --total
- If entries exceed 10,000, truncates with a message: ... and N smaller
entries omitted
Scope
Implementation would be ~100 LOC in du.c, reusing existing print_size() and
related helpers. I've searched the mailing list archives and Savannah
tracker and found no existing proposal for this.
I considered a short option alias but -s and -S are already taken. Open to
suggestions.
Before writing the patch, I wanted to check if this would be welcome and if
there are any design concerns I should consider.
Well it was discussed previously and not accepted:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/rejected_requests.html#du
sorting is hard to implement without various limitations
and GNU tools try to avoid such limitations.
You also may find something like this useful:
https://www.pixelbeat.org/scripts/dutop
cheers,
Padraig
