Directory size on disk

[idoha]

Hello,
I wish to find out the total space (on disk) of a given directory \ folder on windows platform.
Does anybody know how to do it ?

Thanks,
Ido.

[numberwhun]

What have you tried so far? Please post the code you have used to solve this and we can assist from there.

Just a tip though, you may want to search CPAN for modules to do what you want. If you go to search.cpan.org and search for "size", you will see an entry for File::Size which will return the size of files and directories.

Regards,

Jeff

[idoha]

Hello Jeff,
Thanks for your reply.

I used stat function which returns several parameters regarding a given file path, one of which holds the file size. But unfortunately this value is only the actual size of file, not the space it occupies on the disk. I need "size on disk" value.

I have been trying to use WMI as well, but it doesn't contain any "size" values on directories, just on files (and this is the actual size as well).

One more thing, I am trying to avoid a case of manually drill down into the folder and accumulate all its sub directory's files size (presuming I will be able to find out their "size on disk" values).

Thanks anyway,
Ido.

[numberwhun]

Ok, have you tried the File::Size module that I mentioned in my last post? Also, for dealing with file size, try the File::Util module as it returns the file size in bytes, which should be size on disk as you need.

It just takes a bit of searching on CPAN. You want to deal with files? Search for "file" or "size" and see what comes up. A brief description of what each module does IS given for your review.

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

File::Size is an unauthorized release, which I am not sure what that means, but it may still work OK, I have never tried using it.

http://search.cpan.org/~ofer/File-Size-0.06/

[KevinADC]

personally, I might do it like this:

chdir('c:/');
my @dirinfo = qx|dir c:\windows /S|;
print @dirinfo[-2,-1];

and just parse out the size info.

Note: in the qx|| string I had to use a backslash in front of windows: c:\windows. While Windows allows you to use forward or backslashes in directory paths, DOS does not. Forward slashes are option switches in DOS commands.

As far as finding out the actual disk blocks a file is using, versus it's file size, I do not know how to do that. You may have to use a third party application that can figure that out.

[idoha]

Hi Again,

I have got 1 major constraint: I cannot use an external package such as File::size since I cannot demand from the customer I am doing it for to install that package either. Therefore, I am searching for a build-in method for that purpose.

Thanks,
Ido.

[KevinADC]

If this is being written specific for windows, the client is most likely using activestate perl. Activestate perl comes with many Win32 modules in it's standard distribution. You can look into using those modules instead of sticking with regular perl core modules if that is the case. Otherwise, File::Find or your own custom function is the only way to go that I know of, or use the operating system as I showed above if that will work.

[KevinADC]

after a little research, the /V switch (verbose mode, a forward slash followed by an upper case V) seems to do what you want, it returns info like this

Directory of C:\Perl
File Name         Size        Allocated      Modified      Accessed  Attrib
 
 
.              <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      .
..             <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      ..
SITE           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      site
LIB            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      lib
EG             <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      eg
BIN            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      bin
HTML           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      html
POD2HTMI X~~        16,683        32,768  12-06-02 10:02p  05-31-07       A     pod2htmi.x~~
POD2HTMD X~~        34,146        49,152  12-06-02 10:02p  05-31-07       A     pod2htmd.x~~
DOCS           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:08p  12-06-02      D      Docs
PDK            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:08p  12-06-02      D      PDK
         2 file(s)         50,829 bytes
         9 dir(s)          81,920 bytes allocated
 

so you can get the allocated disk space as well as the file size. The /S switch will drill down into all the sub directories so at the very end you get the totas all summed up:

Total files listed:
     4,739 file(s)     69,754,995 bytes
     2,174 dir(s)     125,861,888 bytes allocated
                         6,290.38 MB free
                        19,459.84 MB total disk space,  67% in use
 

[miller]

I have got 1 major constraint: I cannot use an external package such as File::size since I cannot demand from the customer I am doing it for to install that package either. Therefore, I am searching for a build-in method for that purpose.

At the very least then, just look at the source of File::Size in order to determine how they implemented this. File::Find is a core module though, so as Kevin says, you can just roll your own function as well:

use File::Find;
 
my $directory = shift || '.';
 
print dir_size($directory);
 
sub dir_size {
    my $directory = shift;
    die "Directory expected as parameter" if !-d $directory;
 
    my $size_total = 0;
 
    find({follow => 0, wanted => sub {
        $size_total += -s $File::Find::name || 0;
    }}, $directory);
 
    return $size_total;
}
 
1;
 
__END__
 

- Miller

[KevinADC]

That File::Util module Jeff mentioned looks interesting.

[idoha]

At the very least then, just look at the source of File::Size in order to determine how they implemented this. File::Find is a core module though, so as Kevin says, you can just roll your own function as well:

use File::Find;
 
my $directory = shift || '.';
 
print dir_size($directory);
 
sub dir_size {
    my $directory = shift;
    die "Directory expected as parameter" if !-d $directory;
 
    my $size_total = 0;
 
    find({follow => 0, wanted => sub {
        $size_total += -s $File::Find::name || 0;
    }}, $directory);
 
    return $size_total;
}
 
1;
 
__END__
 

- Miller

Hi Miller,
This procedure works ok. The only problem is that it return the actual size of directory, not the total space it occupies on the disk.

[idoha]

after a little research, the /V switch (verbose mode, a forward slash followed by an upper case V) seems to do what you want, it returns info like this

Directory of C:\Perl
File Name         Size        Allocated      Modified      Accessed  Attrib
 
 
.              <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      .
..             <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      ..
SITE           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      site
LIB            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      lib
EG             <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      eg
BIN            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      bin
HTML           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:01p  12-06-02      D      html
POD2HTMI X~~        16,683        32,768  12-06-02 10:02p  05-31-07       A     pod2htmi.x~~
POD2HTMD X~~        34,146        49,152  12-06-02 10:02p  05-31-07       A     pod2htmd.x~~
DOCS           <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:08p  12-06-02      D      Docs
PDK            <DIR>                      12-06-02 10:08p  12-06-02      D      PDK
         2 file(s)         50,829 bytes
         9 dir(s)          81,920 bytes allocated
 

so you can get the allocated disk space as well as the file size. The /S switch will drill down into all the sub directories so at the very end you get the totas all summed up:

Total files listed:
     4,739 file(s)     69,754,995 bytes
     2,174 dir(s)     125,861,888 bytes allocated
                         6,290.38 MB free
                        19,459.84 MB total disk space,  67% in use
 

Hi Kevin,
This could be very helpful for me. I don't really understand how you run this verbose mode. Do you run it on on "dir" command (dir /V ?).
I have been trying to do it and there ain't such an option in XP cmd (only in older version of windows such as 98 and 95).

Any idea?

Thanks,
Ido.

[KevinADC]

go to the DOS prompt and type:

dir /?

It might be the /n switch with windows XP:

/n : Displays a long list format with file names on the far right of the screen.

windows XP DOS commands

You can try stat()[12] on a file and see if it returns a value. It is the allocated disk space but I don't think it works for Windows:

$allocated = (stat('c:\filename.txt'))[12];

[idoha]

go to the DOS prompt and type:

dir /?

It might be the /n switch with windows XP:

/n : Displays a long list format with file names on the far right of the screen.

windows XP DOS commands

You can try stat()[12] on a file and see if it returns a value. It is the allocated disk space but I don't think it works for Windows:

$allocated = (stat('c:\filename.txt'))[12];

Hi,
/n doesn't make any change.
Stat doens't return any allocated blocks as it should.

No cure for me.

Any other suggestions ?

Ido.

[KevinADC]

maybe fsutil: file

fsutil: file

[numberwhun]

windows XP DOS commands

Nice link Kevin! Thanks for that!! Always handy to have something like that.

Regards,

Jeff

[numberwhun]

Hi,
/n doesn't make any change.
Stat doens't return any allocated blocks as it should.

No cure for me.

Any other suggestions ?

Ido.

So you are looking for the number of blocks taken up on the drive? This is the first time you have said that. In the File::Size module you have to define the block size in order to get things like size in MB. If you don't define it, it defaults to 1. As miller said, you may want to examine the source for that package since you cannot use packages.

Regards,

Jeff