How can I recursively count files in a Linux directory?

To recursively count files in a Linux directory (and its subdirectories), use find along with wc -l. Here’s the most common approach:

find /path/to/directory -type f | wc -l

Explanation:

1. find /path/to/directory: Searches within the specified directory (recursively by default).
2. -type f: Restricts the search to regular files only (ignoring directories, symlinks, etc.).
3. | wc -l: Pipes the list of found files to wc (word count) with -l (line count), giving you the total number of files.

More Tips

• Counting Specific File Types
  For instance, to count only .txt files:

  find /path/to/directory -type f -name "*.txt" | wc -l

• Excluding Certain Directories
  If you want to skip folders like node_modules:

  find /path/to/directory -type d -name "node_modules" -prune -o -type f -print | wc -l

  This command prunes node_modules but counts all other files.

• Potential Edge Cases

  • If you have millions of files, the command might be slow or produce a large output buffer before counting.
  • Use -maxdepth or -mindepth if you need to restrict how deep the search goes.

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