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recursive wc on a directory?

 
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# 1  
Old 11-29-2006
recursive wc on a directory?
Hi all,
I need to count the number of lines in all the files under a directory (several levels deep). I am feeling extremely dumb, but I don't know how to do that. Needless to say, I am not a shell script wiz... Any advice?

thanks in advance!
# 2  
Old 11-29-2006
Try this:
Code:
find /topleveldirectory/ -type f -exec wc -l {} \;

# 3  
Old 06-18-2009
Total Lines
Hi,

How do I get the total number of lines because when I try this command it just lists them endlessly where I only want one number?

Cheers
# 4  
Old 06-18-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyperfrog
Hi,

How do I get the total number of lines because when I try this command it just lists them endlessly where I only want one number?

Cheers
Code:
wc -l `find /dir/name -type f`

Note that those are backticks, and also be aware that if there are too many files you can exceed your shell's argument limitations.
# 5  
Old 06-18-2009
this is an old thread.
beside exceeding shells argument limitations, you solution does not cater for files with white spaces.
# 6  
Old 06-19-2009
Code:
find . -type f -print|while read FILENAME
do
      cat "${FILENAME}"
done | wc -l

# 7  
Old 06-19-2009
Simple and fast:
Code:
find /topleveldirectory/ -type f -exec wc -l {} \; | awk '{total += $1} END{print total}'

No loops, no whitespace problems, no unnecessary cat
 
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