I don't understand how to calculate the total value of (ls -l)

greeting · 08-05-2006, 11:56 PM

Hi! Everybody

I don't know the calculation of total in ls -l command.
total 60
-rw------- 1 user1 user1 1317 Aug 3 17:17 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 3 user1 user1 4096 Aug 3 17:40 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 28324 Aug 3 17:13 install.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 4151 Aug 3 17:12 install.log.syslog

If I use the command ls -l in the empty dirctory I got the total of 0.(easy to understand

)
total 0

If I use the command ls -al in the empty dirctory I got the total of 16. (How???)

total 16
drwxrwxr-x 2 user1 user1 4096 Aug 6 09:06 .
drwxrwxr-x 4 user1 user1 4096 Aug 6 09:06 ..

Regards,
Greeting

DrAxeman · 08-06-2006, 12:07 AM

Great question. I'm not sure either. Maybe it's the total # of inodes used?

Does anyone have a better answer?

frob23 · 08-06-2006, 12:32 AM

Code:

     The listing of a directory's contents is preceded by a labeled total num-
     ber of blocks used in the file system by the files which are listed as
     the directory's contents (which may or may not include . and .. and other
     files which start with a dot, depending on other options).

     The default block size is 512 bytes.

This is from the FreeBSD manpage but it still looks to be the same.

Code:

drwxrwxr-x 2 user1 user1 4096 Aug 6 09:06 .
drwxrwxr-x 4 user1 user1 4096 Aug 6 09:06 ..

4096 is 8 512 byte blocks.
.=8 +
..=8
Total=16

Code:

-rw------- 1 user1 user1 1317 Aug 3 17:17 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 3 user1 user1 4096 Aug 3 17:40 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 28324 Aug 3 17:13 install.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 4151 Aug 3 17:12 install.log.syslog

1317 = 3 blocks
4096 = 8 blocks
28324 = 56 blocks
4151 = 9 blocks

Total = 76 ? This is odd though. I don't know why that worked out like it did. Oh well, that is what the number is supposed to mean.

frob23 · 08-06-2006, 12:38 AM

It occurs to me that the number of blocks used would be less than the bytes in a file if the file had a hole in it. It's possible for me to create a file which should be 137 blocks but only uses 6 because most of the file is a hole. That is probably the case in the above example. I suspect install.log has a hole which threw off the numbers.

jlliagre · 08-06-2006, 02:03 AM

The same question was recently discussed:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=455323

You can investigate the sparse file theory by using the "du install.log" command.

greeting · 08-08-2006, 02:48 AM

First of all, I would like to say thank you for paying attention to my thread. I tried du command for the following lines

-rw------- 1 user1 user1 1317 Aug 3 17:17 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 3 user1 user1 4096 Aug 3 17:40 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 28324 Aug 3 17:13 install.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 user1 4151 Aug 3 17:12 install.log.syslog

And I got the results like the following

[root@linux ~]# du install.log.syslog
12 install.log.syslog
[root@linux ~]# du install.log
32 install.log
[root@linux ~]# du anaconda-ks.cfg
8 anaconda-ks.cfg

Now, total of 60 is clear.

I would like to know more about total of ls -l. And I have tested the following...

[root@linux mydir]# touch one
[root@linux mydir]# touch two
[root@linux mydir]# touch three
[root@linux mydir]# ls -l
total 12
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 11:43 one
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 11:43 three
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 11:43 two
[root@linux mydir]# du one
4 one
[root@linux mydir]# du three
4 three
[root@linux mydir]# du two
4 two

[root@linux mydir]# cat >> one
one
ls

[root@linux mydir]# ls -l
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7 Aug 8 11:45 one
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 11:43 three
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 11:43 two

[root@linux mydir]# du one
8 one

1. Linux uses 4 blocks for empty files????
2. Linux uses 8 blocks for non-empty files???

Thank in advance,
Greeting

jlliagre · 08-12-2006, 02:11 AM

What filesystem are you using ?

jp-lack · 08-12-2006, 05:28 AM

you can use 'h' for human readable

root@zion:~# ls -lh
total 28M