Linux command to find the largest files on Ubuntu machine

Question

I want to find the top 3 largest files on my Ubuntu machine. How can I do it using the Linux command? Is there any command for it?

Answer 1

To find the largest file(s) on Ubuntu, you can use the "find" command in combination with the "du", "sort", and "head" commands.

Here is an example:

sudo find / -type f -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -n 3

The above command will return top 3 largest files on your system.

• /: Searches the entire filesystem. Replace / with a specific directory (e.g., /home).
• -type f: Only finds files (not directories).
• -exec du -h {} +: Displays the file size in human-readable format.
• sort -rh: Sorts the files in descending order by size.
• head -n 3: Limits the output to the 3 largest files.