/bin/ls "total" number reported???

JimDog · 10-16-2003, 06:26 AM

This has got to be an easy one, but I can't find the answer anywhere. What exactly is the "total" that is reported when you do an "ls"? I always thought it was the size in MB of the files listed, but it doesn't seem to add up.

Example, when I do a listing in one particular directory (ls -al) I get:

total 43456
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3701594
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3108510
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3070580
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3099733
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 2602570
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3184369
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 2903501
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 2981555
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 2063089
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 2892216
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3057414
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 4142959
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3906603
-rwxrwxr-x 1 nobody nobody 3694698

Notice that everything adds up to 44,417,583;
but 43456 * 1024 = 44,498,944

iainr · 10-16-2003, 09:08 AM

I believe it is a total of the displayed blocks, including indirect blocks. Block size may vary but in your case you presumably have 1k blocks.

Balajisekar · 03-14-2012, 02:54 PM

Yes, It is the total block size... U can check them with "ls -s" option.

Thanks,
Balaji G

David the H. · 03-15-2012, 01:46 PM

The info pages for commands like this often go into a lot more detail than the man pages. Check out info ls for a detailed description of all its options.

Code:

`-l'
`--format=long'
`--format=verbose'
     In addition to the name of each file, print the file type, file
     mode bits, number of hard links, owner name, group name, size, and
     timestamp (*note Formatting file timestamps::), normally the
     modification time.  Print question marks for information that
     cannot be determined.

     Normally the size is printed as a byte count without punctuation,
     but this can be overridden (*note Block size::).  For example, `-h'
     prints an abbreviated, human-readable count, and
     `--block-size="'1"' prints a byte count with the thousands
     separator of the current locale.

     For each directory that is listed, preface the files with a line
     `total BLOCKS', where BLOCKS is the total disk allocation for all
     files in that directory.  The block size currently defaults to 1024
     bytes, but this can be overridden (*note Block size::).  The
     BLOCKS computed counts each hard link separately; this is arguably
     a deficiency.