How To Count Files in Directory in Linux Mint   

In this brief post, we'll learn to count number of files in current or any other folder on Ubuntu and Linux Mint with terminal.

Step 1: Count number of files in current folder

First example will show us how to the find the number of all files in the working directory:

find . -type f | wc -l

Result:

176

Explanation:

• . - represents the current working folder
• -type f - searching for files only. Use -type d - for folders
• | wc -l - counts the output of the previous command

Note: This is counting only files and not including hidden ones. It will count the files in the subfolders recursively.

Step 2: Count number of files based on file type or name

If you like to get the number of the files only from a given file type or name pattern then you can use next command:

For .html files:

find . -type f -name *.html | wc -l

output:

0

Counting all CSV files in the current folder with terminal:

find . -type f -name *.csv | wc -l

output:

2

Where:

• -name *.csv - gives a pattern for the name. It reads like - give me anything followed by .csv. If you like to search for filenames containing keyword in their name - *keyword*.

Step 3: Count number of files in folder

If you like to work with another folder different than the current one you can do it by:

find ~/Downloads/ -type f -name *.md | wc -l

Where ~/Downloads/ is the folder where the search will be performed.