Count files in a directory

[teser]

Is there a command to count files in a specific directory?

 

[grega]

I've never come across an easy way but it can be done either this way;

ls -l|grep ^-r|wc -l

(this assumes all "files" have at least owner read permission - not a good way to get an accurate count) ..

or like this

ls -F|grep -v \/|wc -l

(This lists all files and puts a / after directory names ... filter out the directory name ... then count the files!)

Greg.

 

[grega]

Oh ... also ... if there are no subdirectories in the directory you want to count, the best way is;

find . -type f|wc -l

.. but as I say, this only works if there are no subdirectories

Greg.

 

[MikeLacey]

ls | wc -l

will count all files, inc those files that happen to be a directory themselves, in the current directory

ls -l | grep -v '^d' | wc -l

will exclude the directories Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.

 

[grega]

Not being picky Mike, but ls -l | grep -v ^d | wc -l will give you 1 more than the total files because of the "total nnn" shown by ls -l at the top of the list ...

Sorry ... had to do that! ;-)

Greg.

 

[teser]

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[MikeLacey]

doh!

ok then....

ls -l | grep -v '^d|^total' | wc -l

you got me greg! <grin>
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.