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. Thanks, Daniel
