Summarize size of all files of given type in all subdirectories (in bytes)
du -cb `find /tmp -type f -iname \*pdf`|tail -n 1
But be aware that this second command CANNOT count files with spaces in their names and it will cheat you, if there are some files matching the pattern that you don't have rights to read. The first oneliner is resistant to such problems (it will not count sizes of files which you cant read but will give you correct sum of rest of them).
sum=16173037
1 Alternatives + Submit Alt
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This deals nicely with filenames containing special characters and can deal with more files than can fit on a commandline. It also avoids spawning du. Show Sample Output
1find . -iname '*.jpg' -type f -print0 |perl -0 -ne '$a+=-s $_;END{print "$a\n"}'
What do you think?
Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?
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find /tmp -iname "*.pdf" -exec du -b {} \; | awk '{t=t+$1} END {print t}'Sometimes a solution to the "filenames with spaces" problem is to usefind -name "whatever" -print0 | xargs -0 duwhich null-terminates the filenames, making the spaces not to be a problem. xargs is frequently used in concert with find, and in some cases your command will probably complete much sooner because instead of invoking du (as in this example) once on each file, xargs will invoke du on many arguments at once; still the same number of system calls, but fewer process creations. xargs can put the piped-in arguments at any location in a command using the -I (capital i) option.find /tmp -type f -name \*pdf -print0 2>/dev/null | xargs -0 du -bc | tail -n 1It is MUCH, MUCH faster. Thanks. :-D