Ubuntu – Summarize file sizes of a directory structure

file sizels

I have written a small backup script with rsync. I would like to monitor its progress by comparing the total file sizes on the source and destination directories. du Is inaccurate because it measures the disk usage, not the file size, and the disk usage varies between file systems.

How can I summarize the file sizes of an entire directory structure?

Best Answer

Perhaps the --apparent-size option for du will do what you are after:

--apparent-size
       print apparent sizes,  rather  than  disk  usage;  although  the
       apparent  size is usually smaller, it may be larger due to holes
       in (`sparse') files, internal  fragmentation,  indirect  blocks,
       and the like

That should remove the dependence on file system block sizes or other metadata.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to list recursive file sizes of files and directories in a directory

I guess the easiest way is by typing ls -l, or ls -lh which will provide the file size in human-readable format (KB, MB, etc).

If 'recursively' means listing all the subsequent folders, e.g.:

/foo/
/foo/bar/ ....

Then you should also add parameter R, like ls -lR or ls -lhR

More information for ls can be found by typing man ls

Update:

The following command as Lekensteyn proposed will probably do the job:

du -h --max-depth=1 <folder>

-h is for human-readable
--apparent-size is another way to display sizes as already stated
--max-depth is the level of subfolders you want to go down to.

Ubuntu – print contents of a directory structure (filesystem) to CSV on the command line

This creates a CSV file listing.csv with file name, time stamp and size for all files in /some/folder/ and its subfolders:

find /some/folder -printf '"%P";"%Tc";"%s";\n' > listing.csv

See the documentation for -printf in the manpage for find if you want to use other fields.

Note that it doesn't work for file names containing " characters.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to list recursive file sizes of files and directories in a directory

Ubuntu – print contents of a directory structure (filesystem) to CSV on the command line

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