Managing files is a crucial aspect of working with Linux systems. And while counting files on your Linux system can be one of those tasks that can seem daunting, you can accomplish it with the help of a few useful commands. That said, this article will discuss the various methods of counting the number of files in a Linux directory.
Unix/Linux Number of files in the folder
The ls command is the most basic Linux command, typically used to list the contents of a directory. You can pair it with the wc Linux command, which can count the number of files in a directory using the appropriate flags. The syntax for counting the number of files in a directory with the ls command is:
For example, to count the number of files in the ~/Documents/test directory, use the following command:
The tree command is a handy tool and can help to see the directory in hierarchical form along with the number of items. However, this command usually does not come pre-installed on most Linux distros today. This Linux command can also be used to count the number of files in a directory. Use the distro-specific command to install it:
