TOPNFILES(1)

📦 version 4.1.12, in ubuntu stonking

💖 TOPNFILES(1) — the manual, but make it a group chat 💖

User Commands ✨ section 1 energy, bestie, and the program we're talking about is topnfiles.

🌸 NAME 🌸

topnfiles — this is literally the manual page for topnfiles 4.1.12, no cap 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

topnfiles [OPTIONS] <startdirs>...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so. topnfiles goes digging through a whole directory structure and finds the newest / oldest / smallest / largest files for you. It's giving personal-assistant-that-actually-answers-your-texts. 💅

🎀 Arguments:

  • <startdirs>... — which directory to start in, bestie. And the way you can pass multiple start directories?? Obsessed. Just separate them with spaces. 🍓

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -a, --attribute <attribute> — which time attribute we're sorting on. Default is 'modified' — here's the exact spec so you know I'm not making anything up: [default: ] [possible values: , accessed, created, modified] (yes the empty one is really in there, it's just how it is, don't @ me 💀)
  • -d, --directories — evaluate directories too, not just files. Let the folders have their moment. 🔥
  • -n, --number <number> — how many directory entries to hand back to you. [default: 10] ✨
  • -e, --exclude <exclude> — a regular expression that the path must NOT match for the file to even get evaluated. The regex dialect is the one from the Rust regex crate, iykyk. 🧚
  • -i, --include <include> — a regular expression the path must match for the file to get evaluated. Same deal: Rust regex crate dialect. 🧚
  • -o, --output <output> — what we actually print about each file. The menu is: i=ISO time, j=json, p=human readable path, u=unixtime, b=size(bytes), 0=print0. Real talk though, read this part carefully:
    • '0' cannot be combined with other output elements. It means output should be handled like the find utility does with its -print0 argument: the record separator is the null character instead of newline.
    • 'j' means JSON and cannot be combined with other output elements; the resulting JSON will contain time, path, and size.
    • 'p' will replace problematic charaters (newlines, the bell char, etc) in paths with the Unicode control pictures or caret escaped charaters, depending on the capabilities of the environment. 👀
    • [default: ip]
  • -r, --return <return> — what we sort on: oldest, youngest, largest, or smallest. [default: youngest] [possible values: largest, oldest, smallest, youngest] 🎀
  • -w, --weird — accept weird option combinations. Yes bestie, there's a flag for being ungovernable. 🙈
  • -x, --xdev — do not descend into directories that live on other filesystems. Stay in your lane, stay on your mount. 💅
  • -h, --help — print help 🫶
  • -V, --version — print version ⭐

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Lowkey the full documentation for topnfiles is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and topnfiles programs are properly installed at your site, this command:

info topnfiles

should give you access to the complete manual. Go get your lore, queen. 📚👑

And that's the whole page!! This was topnfiles version 4.1.12, dated February 2026, sitting pretty in TOPNFILES(1). Mwah, go find some files, bestie 💖✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from