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Full Discussion: Counting number of files in a directory
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Counting number of files in a directory Post 82687 by zazzybob on Monday 5th of September 2005 10:04:27 AM
Old 09-05-2005
ls -l /tmp | wc -l would count files, directories, and also the line that displays the total size of the listing.

The best way is
ls -1 /tmp | wc -l (ls -number_one) although this still shows directories too.

If you just want a count of files (including soft links, etc)....

echo "`ls -l | grep -v "^d" | wc -l` - 1" | bc

You can grep -v out stuff you don't want.

On the second question....

ls /my/dir/*some_string* | wc -l

Or to use regular expressions instead of globbing

ls /my/dir | grep "some_[Ss]tring" | wc -l

Many ways to skin these cats.....

Cheers
ZB
 

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

e2tools

E2TOOLS(7)						 Miscellaneous Information Manual						E2TOOLS(7)

NAME

       e2tools -  utilities to manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem

DESCRIPTION

       E2tools	is  a  simple  set  of	GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. These utilities access a
       filesystem directly using the ext2fs library. I wrote these tools in order to copy files into a linux filesystem on a machine that does not
       have  ext2  support.  Of  course, they can also be used on a linux machine to read/write to disk images or floppies without having to mount
       them or have root access.

       Supported functionality:

       e2cp   copy files

       e2mv   move files

       e2rm   remove files

       e2mkdir
	      create directory

       e2ln   create hard links

       e2ls   list files/directories

       e2tail output the last part of a file

       In general, to specify a directory or file on an ext2 filesystem for the e2tools utilities, use the following form:

	      filesystem:directory_path

       The filesystem can be an unmounted partition or a regular file that's been formatted to contain an ext2 filesystem.  In general, if a  com-
       mand takes multiple file names on the command line, if the first one contains an ext2 file specification, the rest of the files are assumed
       to be on the same filesystem until another one is explicitly stated:

	      /tmp/boot.img:/tmp/file1

	      /tmp/file2

	      /tmp/file3

	      /tmp/boot2.img:/tmp/file4

       Files 1-3 are on /tmp/boot.img and the last file is on /tmp/boot2.img

SEE ALSO

       e2cp(1), e2ln(1), e2ls(1), e2mkdir(1), e2mv(1), e2rm(1), e2tail(1).

AUTHOR

       The e2tools were written by Keith Sheffield <sheff@pobox.com>.

       This manual page was written by Lucas Wall <lwall@debian.org>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).

								   March 2, 2005							E2TOOLS(7)
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