In this example, the command will recursively find files (-type f) under /some/path, where the path ends in .mp3, case insensitive (-iregex).
It will then output a single line of output (-print0), with results terminated by a the null character (octal 000). Suitable for piping to xargs -0. This type of output avoids issues with garbage in paths, like unclosed quotes.
The tr command then strips away everything but the null chars, finally piping to wc -c, to get a character count.
I have found this very useful, to verify one is getting the right number of before you actually process the results through xargs or similar. Yes, one can issue the find without the -print0 and use wc -l, however if you want to be 1000% sure your find command is giving you the expected number of results, this is a simple way to check.
The approach can be made in to a function and then included in .bashrc or similar. e.g.
count_chars() { tr -d -c "$1" | wc -c; }
In this form it provides a versatile character counter of text streams :)
Show Sample Output
This is especially useful to get crazy stuff like space characters copied to your pasteboard correctly. Source: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.functions Show Sample Output
commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.
Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10
Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):
Subscribe to the feed for: