Count the number of objects in the filesystem owned by the current user

Lassie111 · 03-07-2020, 05:10 AM

I'm trying to count all files/directories in the filesystem owned by the current user.
I tried these 2 commands but they give different result.

Code:

find / -printf "%u\n" 2> /dev/null | grep "^$(whoami)$" | wc -l

Output: 46130

Code:

find / -user "$(whoami)" 2> /dev/null | wc -l

Output: 45944

Why is that?

syg00 · 03-07-2020, 05:43 AM

Print the data and find out - you obviously know how to format the strings so they can be diff'd.

berndbausch · 03-07-2020, 05:44 AM

Example: Two users, jagger and mjagger. If the current user is jagger, the first command counts files owned by mjagger as well.

You could run

Code:

find / -printf "%u %p\n" -a ! -user "$(whoami)" | grep "$(whoami)"

or similar to understand that better.

hydrurga · 03-07-2020, 05:50 AM

Run both commands again and confirm that the figures are reproducible.

Bear in mind that your filesystem may be changing during the execution of the commands.

Lassie111 · 03-07-2020, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

Run both commands again and confirm that the figures are reproducible.

Bear in mind that your filesystem may be changing during the execution of the commands.

Yes, both command's outputs always differ.

Lassie111 · 03-07-2020, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Example: Two users, jagger and mjagger. If the current user is jagger, the first command counts files owned by mjagger as well.

You could run

Code:

find / -printf "%u %p\n" -a ! -user "$(whoami)" | grep "$(whoami)"

or similar to understand that better.

I know that, that's why I used "^$(whoami)$".

hydrurga · 03-07-2020, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lassie111

Yes, both command's outputs always differ.

Yes, but do you get the same figures each time?

If not, try it again with a read-only filesystem.

Lassie111 · 03-07-2020, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

Yes, but do you get the same figures each time?

If not, try it again with a read-only filesystem.

No, they change.

hydrurga · 03-07-2020, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lassie111

No, they change.

Ok. Boot up into Linux off a live media and mount your drive as read-only. Then try the commands again (ensuring that you use the correct path).

DavidMcCann · 03-07-2020, 10:10 AM

What do you get using the file manager of your desktop?

scasey · 03-07-2020, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lassie111

I know that, that's why I used "^$(whoami)$".

You didn't do that in both commands...

Also, as suggested in #2, redirect the output to files and diff the files to see what's different.

boughtonp · 03-07-2020, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scasey

You didn't do that in both commands...

The OP did it in the one that matters - running "find -user "^$(whoami)$"" errors because it's not doing a regex match.

Quote:

Also, as suggested in #2, redirect the output to files and diff the files to see what's different.

Yep, that is what the OP needs to do, and then any files not on both sides can be examined to determine the reason why not.

To do that means re-writing the first command to include filename and updating the grep to look at the username part, plus prefixing all lines of the second file with the username - both simple enough operations.