what is this ls?

veeramani · 03-21-2007, 08:08 AM

hi,

When i type the command , i can get three terms as follows.what is this? I think the first one is number of files and directories,what about the other two?

ls -l |wc
35 309 2360

pwc101 · 03-21-2007, 08:12 AM

from man wc:

Code:

DESCRIPTION
       Print byte, word, and newline counts for each FILE, and a total line if
       more than one FILE is specified.  With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read
       standard input.

So it seems what you're seeing is the number of bytes, the number of words, and the number of newline counts for the output of ls.

edit: although I'm not sure if the last number (2360) is perhaps the total line counts since there's likely to be more that one file. It depends on how it processes stdin.

pixellany · 03-21-2007, 08:14 AM

Take a look at "man wc" Hint: it is counting three parameters--one of which is the # of words

Your guess on the first one is sort of correct, but not directly....

pixellany · 03-21-2007, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwc101

edit: although I'm not sure if the last number (2360) is perhaps the total line counts since there's likely to be more that one file. It depends on how it processes stdin.

It's processing the output of ls -l as a text file---it knows nothing of the meaning--it only counts lines, words, and bytes in the text stream.

pwc101 · 03-21-2007, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

It's processing the output of ls -l as a text file---it knows nothing of the meaning--it only counts lines, words, and bytes in the text stream.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't sure if it would receive the data from ls -l as a single event, or as a series of events (each line of the output, for example), thereby treating each as a separate event.

I'm still pleasantly surprised by how much I don't know about GNU/Linux!

veeramani · 03-21-2007, 08:46 AM

Wow .,, Thanks a lot for you all