UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

$ls -lrt mydir
total 12
drwxrwxrwx 2 nobody nobody 512 Aug 8 11:51 tmp
drwxrwxrwx 2 nobody nobody 4608 Jan 19 12:20 web.cache

$ ls -lrt mydir/web.cache/
total 0

$ ls -lrt mydir/tmp/
total 0

Can anyone explain me the above results? I know the o/p of ls, but this seems weird.
Why did the 1st ls give total 12? I think it is supposed to give the total number of files listed?
Why is the size of the 2 directories listed different. when both the directories are empty?

Thanks,
Rahul.

total <number>
indicates the total no of blocks (including indirect blocks ) in the directory
and not the no of files under that.

total display cannot be guaranteed when there are files with hard links in the directory.

have u checked for the existence of hidden files (the one with <dot>)

ls -al

$ ls -lart mydir/tmp
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 4 root other 512 Aug 8 11:51 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 nobody nobody 512 Aug 8 11:51 .
$ ls -lrta mydir/web.cache/
total 12
drwxrwxrwx 4 root other 512 Aug 8 11:51 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 nobody nobody 4608 Jan 19 12:20 .

The size 4608 is poniting to the . i.e the current directory. Is there any problem with the FileSystem?

Thanks,
Rahul

See help with ls please