How to Get File Size in Bash: Simple Commands and Examples

In bash, you can get a file's size using the stat command with -c%s to print the size in bytes, like stat -c%s filename. Alternatively, use wc -c < filename to count bytes, which also returns the file size.

Syntax

The main commands to get file size in bash are:

• stat -c%s filename: Prints the file size in bytes.
• wc -c < filename: Counts the number of bytes in the file.

Here, filename is the path to your file.

bash

stat -c%s filename
wc -c < filename

Example

This example shows how to get the size of a file named example.txt using both stat and wc. It prints the size in bytes.

bash

echo "Hello World" > example.txt
size_stat=$(stat -c%s example.txt)
size_wc=$(wc -c < example.txt)
echo "Size using stat: $size_stat bytes"
echo "Size using wc: $size_wc bytes"

Output

Size using stat: 12 bytes
Size using wc: 12 bytes

Common Pitfalls

Common mistakes when getting file size in bash include:

• Using wc -c filename without input redirection, which prints the filename along with the size.
• Not handling files with spaces or special characters properly.
• Using stat options that differ between systems (Linux vs macOS).

For example, on macOS, use stat -f%z filename instead of stat -c%s filename.

bash

wc -c example.txt
# Outputs: 12 example.txt

wc -c < example.txt
# Outputs: 12

Output

12 example.txt
12

Quick Reference

Command	Description	Example
stat -c%s filename	Get file size in bytes (Linux)	stat -c%s example.txt
stat -f%z filename	Get file size in bytes (macOS)	stat -f%z example.txt
wc -c < filename	Count bytes in file	wc -c < example.txt

Key Takeaways

Use stat -c%s filename on Linux to get file size in bytes.

Use wc -c < filename to count bytes without printing filename.

On macOS, use stat -f%z filename instead of Linux syntax.

Redirect input with < when using wc -c to avoid extra output.

Handle filenames with spaces by quoting or escaping them.