[SOLVED] how can I see properties of a directory using command line?

joham34 · 03-04-2011, 08:00 AM

Hi everybody
I am struggling to learn the command line, and am stuck to the following
In my directory ~/Music , I have many music archives , total about 0,8 Gbyte .
Yet , changing to this directory ) and giving ls -dlh , I get

ioannis@ioannis-laptop:~/Music$ ls -ldh
drwxr-xr-x 4 ioannis ioannis 4.0K 2011-03-04 14:55

So, only 4 k size and no info about the number of the files in the dir
Any hint would be very appreciable

vitorsgoncalves · 03-04-2011, 08:04 AM

try ls -l

truboy · 03-04-2011, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joham34

... and giving ls -dlh ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by vitorsgoncalves

try ls -l

That's what he did !

To get the size of the directory :

Code:

du -sh directory/

jschiwal · 03-04-2011, 08:15 AM

To the kernel, a directory is a file, containing a table of filenames and inode numbers. So the size given is the size of this file.

The "-d" option you used with the "ls" command tells the ls command that you want to look at the properties of the directory itself. You would use "-ld" to check the ownership and permissions of a directory. You could use 'ls -d */' to display a listing of just directories.

truboy · 03-04-2011, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

To the kernel, a directory is a file, containing a table of filenames and inode numbers. So the size given is the size of this file.

Then would the size of a directory containing billions and billions of files/directories be more than the usual 4ko ?

mikey99 · 03-04-2011, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by truboy

Then would the size of a directory containing billions and billions of files/directories be more than the usual 4ko ?

Of course. Try this...

mkdir test
touch test/filename{1..1000}
ls -ld test

A directory is a file containing filename to inode mappings. Lots of files means a large directory file.

joham34 · 03-04-2011, 10:35 AM

THank you for you replies. I have read about du command but thought I did something wrong with ls command . To be honest I would expect a command to get the usual infos about a dir (including size and number of files) through the command line. It is done easily through GUI just by right clicking.
I am charmed about the beauty and power of the command line anyway