How to count the number of files in a directory recursively on Linux Ubuntu. On Unix, count files in directory and subdirectories or number of files in a directory in Linux
1st Command: Count Files In A Directory Using Wc Command
The ‘wc’ counts the number of bytes, characters, whitespace-separated words, and newlines in each given FILE.
When a file name is given as an argument, it prints the file name following the counts. If more than one FILE is given, ‘wc’ prints a final line containing the cumulative counts, with the file name ‘total’.
NOTE: The counts are printed in this order:
- newlines
- words
- characters
- bytes
- maximum line length
Each count is printed right-justified in a field with at least one space between fields so that the numbers and file names normally line up nicely in columns.
The easiest way to to count files in a directory is using wc command together with ls command as:
ls -1 | wc -l
NOTE: When the directory has more than 100 of files in it, using the regular wc command will take a large amount of time to execute. Soi nstead use the following command:
ls -f | wc -l
2nd Command: Count Files In A Directory Using Find Command
The find command can be used to count files in a directory recursively.
Which means, using the find command will count and display the number of files in a certain directory and within the directories. The command will have the following syntax:
find DIRECTORYNAME -type f | wc -l
3rd Command: Count Files In A Directory Using egrep Command
egrep command is similar to wc command. The egrep command displays the number of files in the current directory.
You can use the egrep command as:
ls -l . | egrep -c '^-'
Apart from the above three commands you can also use the tree command to count files and directories. The tree command returns a list of all the files and directories in a directory with their hierarchy.