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Get size of a file using ls on all UNIX OSes

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Get size of a file using ls on all UNIX OSes
# 15  
Old 05-02-2013
Quote:
A better approach is to use some
very simple shell script logic to
parse the the output of ls -l
Go back to the original post. They wanted an alternative to that approach.
# 16  
Old 05-02-2013
Perhaps the script can utilize uname to determine which field to use.

If you can depend on perl availability, then you can use its stat builtin function identically on any platform. A simple example that does not implement any error handling:
Code:
find . | perl -lpe '$_ = (stat($_))[7] . "\t$_"'

du was mentioned in several posts. Note that du does not report the file size; it reports the amount of storage that the file occupies. These two values are usually unequal.

Regards,
Alister
# 17  
Old 05-02-2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkySmart
to get the most granular size of a file, you can do so with:
Code:
solaris hosts:

ls -l /tmp/filea | awk '{print $4}'

Code:
linux hosts:

ls -l /tmp/filea | awk '{print $5}'

Is there a more universal command that will give the file size?

i'm leery of this ls command because the fields in which the file size can be found differs on sunos and linux, and i'm not even sure if it is also like that with other unix oses.

so, is there a command that can accomplish the above without needing to check a field/column which, for all we know, wont be the same on another unix os.

i've tried "du -s". but that doesn't seem to work across all unix systems.
This is very strange. On any UNIX System (such as Solaris, HP/UX, OS X, and AIX), the output from the ls -l command should have the file size in the 5th field; not the 4th. Are you using an alias on the Solaris hosts for ls that is employing other options that alter the output? Could you please show us the output of just the ls:
Code:
"ls" -l /tmp/filea

on one of your Solaris hosts without feeding it through awk? (Note that I put the ls in quotes to prevent any possible alias substitutions.)
# 18  
Old 05-02-2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Cragun
This is very strange. On any UNIX System (such as Solaris, HP/UX, OS X, and AIX), the output from the ls -l command should have the file size in the 5th field; not the 4th. Are you using an alias on the Solaris hosts for ls that is employing other options that alter the output? Could you please show us the output of just the ls:
Code:
"ls" -l /tmp/filea

on one of your Solaris hosts without feeding it through awk? (Note that I put the ls in quotes to prevent any possible alias substitutions.)
here, i'm still getting them in different fields:
Code:
[sunbox-01] "ls" -l filea 
-rw-------   1 root       71126 Apr 27 07:21 filea

Code:
[linuxbox-01]#  "ls" -l filea 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 71126 Apr 29 20:27 filea

# 19  
Old 05-02-2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkySmart
here, i'm still getting them in different fields:
Code:
[sunbox-01] "ls" -l filea 
-rw-------   1 root       71126 Apr 27 07:21 filea

Code:
[linuxbox-01]#  "ls" -l filea 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 71126 Apr 29 20:27 filea

Please try:
Code:
"ls" -ln filea

With the amount of space between "root" and the file size, it looks like you might have a group name that is entirely made up of spaces and/or tabs??? Using the l and n options will print user and group numbers instead of names.

Please also show us the output from uname -a on sunbox-01.
This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
SkySmart
# 20  
Old 05-03-2013
You are certainly using /usr/ucb/ls
an old version of ls, only present to provide compatibility with the old SunOS 4, that was terminated 10 years ago (and in turn was compatible with 4.2 BSD Unix).
Use
Code:
ls -lo

or
Code:
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin ls -l

or both
Code:
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin ls -lo

or also set locale with
Code:
LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin:/usr/bin ls -lo

This User Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
SkySmart
# 21  
Old 05-03-2013
Hi Yoda...

There are definately leading spaces and could be a trailing space as well.
Also newline(s) may be part of the result...

Code:
Last login: Fri May  3 08:01:47 on ttys000
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$ wc -c < SCOPE.GIF
   17424
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$

EDIT:

Code:
Last login: Fri May  3 08:01:47 on ttys000
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$ wc -c < SCOPE.GIF
   17424
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$ wc -c < SCOPE.GIF > length.txt
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$ ls -l len*
-rw-r--r--  1 barrywalker  staff  9  3 May 08:15 length.txt
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$ hexdump -C length.txt
00000000  20 20 20 31 37 34 32 34  0a                       |   17424.|
00000009
Barrys-MacBook-Pro:~ barrywalker$

There as a proof test...
Last edited by wisecracker; 05-03-2013 at 04:18 AM..
This User Gave Thanks to wisecracker For This Post:
SkySmart
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