

Each subdirectory has a link back to the parent. The hard link count for a directory can be used to show how many subdirectories there are in the directory. So we can see that counting files and directories in Linux is not difficult but it can be even easier. I am not looking for files, just directories with a particular name. How do I search the subdirectories of /dir to find the one called x/x/dir/x/x/x/target This question is similar to, but not exactly what I am looking for: find command for certain subdirectories. To exclude the current directory from the count we can use the option -mindepth 1 to ensure that we start with the directories content and not the ~]$ find. Let's say I have a top level directory called /dir and many sub directories. Listing directories is similar but we will see that we will include the current directory which we may not want. Of course we could count the output as before. To list files we can use the option -type f. Search sub directories recursively using grep Pass the -r option to grep command to search recursively through an entire directory tree. If we want to count directories and files separately then we can use the GNU command find. ~]$ ls -A | wc ~]$įrom the output we can see that we have a total of 7 items in the current directory. If we want to count the output we are better not count the. The general form of the command is: find (starting directory) (matching criteria and actions) newuser I have to find files only in the current directory.not in the sub directories. To show all files we use -a and almost all files with -A. To list these we can use the option -a or -A with ls. Whilst this is good we will not show hidden files or directories. Pipelining commands in fundamentals to UNIX and Linux $ ls | wc -l The command ls is used to list directory content and wc is used for word count, used with -l it can count lines. Even the answer can be quite simple there is more to investigate than you would at first think.įirstly, if we want to be counting files and directories in Linux then the Linux command ls may be a great option Used in conjunction with the command wc we can count the number of items returned. Look for an empty file inside the current directory. jpg files in the /home and directories below it.
#Unix find file in subdirectories how to#
If you need to know how to find a file in Linux called thisfile.

This all started from a question on my Facebook page. How do I find a file path in Linux Basic Examples find. They are also well suited to those starting out in Linux with one or two elements that may be new even to seasoned Linux users. So when you are ready we shall begin! Although at first counting files and directories in Linux may not seem the most exciting topic you will be surprised just how much you can learn from these tasks. How do you count the number of files or directories in Linux? In his blog we show you how to count files in a directory or the number of subdirectories.
