Sort

Sort is often used to organize the output in asc/desc order.

Here are prominent options used with sort.

-n:sort in numeric order
-r:sort in reverse order
-t:Used to specify delimiter
-k:used to specify field number.

Lets explore the option with example.


Sort all users according to their names.
#sort -t ":" -k 1 /etc/passwd
Sort all users according to uid.
#sort -t ":" -k 3 -n /etc/passwd

Reverse sort above two queries .
#sort -t ":" -k 1 -r /etc/passwd
#sort -t ":" -k 3 -n -r /etc/passwd

How to find Big Size File and Folder in Linux?

Here is the trick

Use the following to find the spacious directory.
#find / -type d -exec ls -ld {} \; |sort -nrk5|head

Use the following to find the spacious file.
#find / -type f -exec ls -ld {} \; |sort -nrk5|head

The output may take time depending on your system performance.