It can also be achieved with some Perl: du -h | perl -e 'sub h{%h=(K=>10,M=>20,G=>30);($n,$u)=shift=~/([0-9.]+)(\D)/; return $n*2**$h{$u}}print sort{h($b)<

It can also be achieved with some Perl: du -h | perl -e 'sub h{%h=(K=>10,M=>20,G=>30);($n,$u)=shift=~/([0-9.]+)(\D)/; return $n*2**$h{$u}}print sort{h($b)<=>h($a)}<>;' Source: http://serverfault.com/a/62422/76878 http://serverfault.com/a/62422/76878