Counting files in one directory - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

matrixtlm · #1 06-12-2007

I did a search on this forum and found this command to count the total of files in one directory:

ls -l | wc -l

I did a test by creating one file in a folder and issue the command. But it return value "2".

Abit confused now. Since there is one file in the directory, isn't it it should return value "1" ?

At the same time I tried "ls -lrt | more", it return "total xxxxx". Is this figure showing the number of lines?

I want to do a count on a directory to get the total files. Please advise. Appreciate. Thanks.

vino · #2 06-12-2007

The reason you are seeing 2 is because of the output of ls -l. Rather you may want to use ls -1 Notice the digit 1 against the letter l

Code:

[/tmp/test]$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 xxxxxxxx g900 0 Jun 12 22:05 test
[/tmp/test]$ ls -l | wc -l
2
[/tmp/test]$ ls -1
test
[/tmp/test]$ ls -1 | wc -l
1
[/tmp/test]$

matrixtlm · #3 06-13-2007

Hi... thanks for the reply.

When I do a "ls -l", i get a return of "total 4000". Even I minus 1, still i will get a value of 3999.

$ls -l | more
total 4000

But when I did a ls -1|wc -l. I get a different figure of "310".

ls -1 | wc -l
310

Is there a difference on the two values? I thought both the command should return the same figure. Please correct me if i'm wrong. Need some explanation. Thanks.

vino · #4 06-13-2007

Post the output of ls -l

matrixtlm · #5 06-13-2007

Hi,

This is the actual figure in my machine

$ls -l | more
total 4696146

$ls -1| wc -l
4312

Thanks.

Percy · #6 06-13-2007

The "total" is something to do with the amount of disk space that directory is using I think. Its nothing to do with the number of files in the directory.

wc -l seems the way to go.

ennstate · #7 06-13-2007

Pls check this thread,
http://unix.com/showthread.php?t=367...light=ls+total

Thanks
Nagarajan G

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