CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Denis Azi
Denis Azi

Reputation: 179

How to get only folder size from "du"?

I need to get the size of my folder, for comparison. But I get the folder size with the path. How to get only the size of my folder? I use the following command in bash:

size=`du -b --max-depth=0  ./main_folder/data`

Output:

12260550 ./main_folder/data

Expected:

12260550

Upvotes: 5

Views: 18300

Answers (5)

Ryan
Ryan

Reputation: 443

Outdated! The most sensical answer to me is the following

du -b --max-depth=0  ./main_folder/data | awk '{print $1;}'

Returns first word of output. Enjoy.

New! Six years later, du has changed its options. In 2025, now recommending the simpler,

du -s ./main_folder/data | awk '{print $1;}'

Upvotes: -1

LincolnP
LincolnP

Reputation: 204

I like this one liner:

myvar=$(du -b --max-depth=0 ./main_folder/data|cut -f1 -d$'\t')

Upvotes: 0

kartheek
kartheek

Reputation: 696

du -sh ./main_folder/data | awk '{print $1;}'

s -> summarizes all the contents of the folder

h -> return output in human readable form

Upvotes: -1

anatolyg
anatolyg

Reputation: 28300

cut is a dedicated command for that type of manipulation on strings.

size=`du -b --max-depth=0  ./main_folder/data | cut -f1`

Here -f1 means "cut the first field" (on each line of piped input, but there is only one line).

Upvotes: 2

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785991

Since you're trying to store size in a variable, you can just take first value and ignore rest as:

read size _ < <(du -b --max-depth=0 main_folder/data)

echo "size=$size"

Upvotes: 2

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