From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Sat Jan 19 00:07:50 2013
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115])
 by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60D532E3
 for <questions@freebsd.org>; Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:07:50 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from fbsd8@a1poweruser.com)
Received: from mail-03.name-services.com (mail-03.name-services.com
 [69.64.155.195]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26788F0E
 for <questions@freebsd.org>; Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:07:49 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from [10.0.10.3] ([173.88.197.103]) by mail-03.name-services.com
 with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675); 
 Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:07:51 -0800
Message-ID: <50F9E3D6.6030409@a1poweruser.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:07:50 -0500
From: Fbsd8 <fbsd8@a1poweruser.com>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (Windows/20080914)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Chris Hill <chris@monochrome.org>
Subject: Re: sh script code to get file size.
References: <50F9DA3E.5050607@a1poweruser.com>
 <alpine.BSF.2.00.1301181846160.42367@tripel.monochrome.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1301181846160.42367@tripel.monochrome.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Jan 2013 00:07:51.0362 (UTC)
 FILETIME=[058FA220:01CDF5D9]
X-Sender: fbsd8@a1poweruser.com
X-Authenticated-Sender: fbsd8@a1poweruser.com
X-EchoSenderHash: [fbsd8]-[a1poweruser*com]
Cc: FreeBSD questions <questions@freebsd.org>
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:07:50 -0000

Chris Hill wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2013, Fbsd8 wrote:
> 
>> In a script in am working on I need to find out the allocated
>> size of a sparse file.
>> The only command that comes to mind is "ls -lh"
>> The "du -h" command is not appropriate because it will show
>> the occupied size and not the allocated size.
>>
>> I don't know how to parse out to the position in the output of that
>> "ls -lh" command to pickup the file size value.
>>
>> Is there some other way to do this?
> 
> To parse it out, I've used something like:
> 
> $ ls -lh npviewer.bin.core | cut -d \  -f 9
> 186M
> 
> After the backslash are two spaces: one being the space that's being 
> escaped to make it the delimiter, the other to separate the options.
> 
> The number after the '-f' determines which "field" of the output is 
> displayed, which may vary.
> 
> HTH.
> 
Yes that works real nice.

Thanks to all who replied.