Count all files without using find

Question

How can I count all files without using find and only grep? I tried using ls recursively but how can I pipe that to grep and count files?

kubanczyk · Answer 1 · 2012-01-17 14:39:27Z

To list all files that match a grep pattern:

grep -rl your_regex_pattern /my/dir /my/other_dir /my/file

To count them:

grep -rl your_regex_pattern /my/dir /my/other_dir /my/file  | wc -l

To count all non-empty files in a directory recursively, you search for an empty string (two single quotes):

grep -rl '' /my/dir       | wc -l

oHessling · Answer 2 · 2012-01-17 12:52:40Z

up vote 2 down vote

If you really want to use solely grep therefore you can do:

grep -lR ^ . | grep -c ^

answered Jan 17 at 12:52

	Does not count empty files; my answer matches them neither. – kubanczyk Jan 17 at 14:41
	Yes @kubanczyk your answer (`grep -rl '' /my/dir`) is the same as mine (`grep -lR ^ /my/dir`): the two answers ignore empty files :-( Let's say this is a feature ;-) Maybe @Marios do not want to count the empty files... NB: he said "only `grep`" – oHessling Jan 17 at 16:44
	Yup. Your `grep -c` fits the requirement much better, that's why I've upvoted it :) – kubanczyk Jan 17 at 16:54
	@kubanczyk Your answer is more pedagogical ;-) What a pity Marios does not respond :-( – oHessling Jan 17 at 21:51
	Please @Marios can you check the answers? – oHessling Jan 18 at 21:12

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Simon Sheehan · Answer 3 · 2012-01-22 14:51:15Z

up vote 0 down vote

du -h | wc -l

[and then subtract 1]

*edit: du -ah | wc -l

answered Jan 17 at 13:41

	`du -h` lists directories only, not files. – haimg Jan 17 at 23:04
	Fine, du -ah \| wc -l – Noxville Jan 20 at 9:08
	Afaik, this prints the same file only once, I.e. ignores additional hard links. – Daniel Beck Jan 20 at 10:16

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3 Answers