Current user only
The scan path is $HOME; it does not intentionally crawl other user home folders or every mounted volume.
macOS Storage Review
Largest Files
Largest Files scans the current user's home folder, identifies the 10 largest items visible to the Terminal session, and saves the ranked results to the Desktop.
Installation
Using the Melding Software Mac installer
Copy and paste this command into Terminal to install the Melding Software Mac scripts.
After reopening Terminal, type MeldingSoftware anytime to load the list.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MeldingSoftware/Scripts/main/Mac/install.sh | bash
Because this command downloads and immediately runs a shell installer, you can review install.sh in the GitHub repository before executing it. Individual scripts may also request permissions, administrator access, Keychain authorization, Full Disk Access, or other macOS approvals depending on what the selected tool needs.
Documentation
Scan behavior
Top 10 items
The script runs du -ah, sorts the results from largest to smallest, and writes the first 10 entries.
Files and directories
Because du -ah reports both files and directories, the output can contain large folders as well as individual files.
Confirmation prompt
The script asks the user to confirm before starting the scan.
Documentation
Full Disk Access check
Best-effort probe
macOS does not provide a simple supported CLI switch for reading the Full Disk Access toggle, so the script probes protected locations such as Mail, Messages, Safari, and the TCC database.
Guidance when blocked
If it sees the usual Operation not permitted result, it opens the Full Disk Access settings pane and asks the user to enable access for the terminal app, quit/reopen Terminal, and rerun the script.
Unknown state
If none of the probe paths exist, the script explains that it could not conclusively determine Full Disk Access.
Documentation
Output and privacy
Local text file
Results are written to ~/Desktop/Largest_Files.txt.
Permission noise suppressed
Permission errors from du are suppressed, so an incomplete scan may look clean unless Full Disk Access is considered.
No upload
The current script does not transmit the path list anywhere.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does it scan the whole Mac?
No. The current version scans the current user's home folder.
Why does it ask about Full Disk Access?
Without it, macOS privacy controls can hide some user data from Terminal and make the results incomplete.
Does 'Largest Files' include folders?
Yes. The underlying du -ah command can place directories in the top 10.
Where is the report saved?
On the Desktop as Largest_Files.txt.