How to know total number of bytes of a directory

[Jerry McAllister]

On Mon, Dec 17, 2007 at 09:09:36AM -0500, DAve wrote:

> Andy Greenwood wrote:
> > DSA - JCR wrote:
> >> Hi all
> >>
> >> I would like to know the total number of bytes of a directory and its
> >> related subdirs, occupied by the files inside it. I haven't found any
> >> command for knowning it.
> >>   
> > 
> > # du -s /etc
> > 17008   /etc
> > 
> > You need read privs to all the subdirectories, otherwise you'll get
> > permission errors and it'll skip those. Note that this displays usage in
> > 512-byte blocks, not bytes, but you should be able to figure it out from
> > there.
> 
> -h provides human readable output.
> du -sh /etc
> 3.8M    /etc

True, although for quickly scanning a long list of files and directories, 
it is more human readable to make them all have the same multiplyer rather
than having to read  the trailing m, k, g  etc.    
So,   I often use   'du -sk *' which makes eyeballing a list easier.

But, since the OP specifically said 'a directory' then -h is probably
the best idea, unless the OP wants the exact number of bytes.

////jerry


> 
> DAve
> 
> -- 
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