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S.R.
Asked: 2018-05-14 07:18:25 +0800 CST

How to calculate total file sizes from a new-line delimited list stored in variable?

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I'm trying to create a Nemo script that will calculate total file size of selected files and pass it on to the rest of the script.

It is using NEMO_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS environment variable that Nemo itself sets when some files are selected.

The problem is, the variable contains a new line separeted paths and file names and I don't know how to handle those.

Any ideas?

Edit: what I get if I echo the contents of the variable into a file is eg: /home/sasa/Pictures/1041247.png /home/sasa/Pictures/849611447.jpg /home/sasa/Pictures/IO2.jpg

which looks more like space than new line delimited.

scripts bash nemo

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use du:

    du -c $(echo "$VAR")

    This will not work when the file names contain spaces.

    Use this:

    while IFS= read -r f; do
    du "$f";
done < <(echo "$VAR") \
| grep -o "^[0-9]*" \
| paste -sd+ | bc
    • 1