A Bash Script Showing Directory Properties in Linux

Data transfer between computers is a routine task in Bioinformatics. It is crucial to ensure that the given transfer protocol such as sftp, scp has entirely transferred the dataset from the source computer to the destination one. Therefore, cross-checking the folder properties like size and content between source and destination computers is important. In Windows, right-clicking on the corresponding folder and then selecting ‘properties’ from the menu will show the folder properties. But how about in Linux?

Here, I have written a bash script that can produce these properties of a folder (directory) in Linux just like in Windows.

The bash script

#!/usr/bin/env bash
Black="$(tput setaf 0)"
BlackBG="$(tput setab 0)"

Red="$(tput setaf 1)"
RedBG="$(tput setab 1)"

Green="$(tput setaf 2)"
GreenBG="$(tput setab 2)"

Yellow="$(tput setaf 3)"
YellowBG="$(tput setab 3)"

Blue="$(tput setaf 4)"
BlueBG="$(tput setab 4)"

Purple="$(tput setaf 5)"
PurpleBG="$(tput setab 5)"

Cyan="$(tput setaf 6)"
CyanBG="$(tput setab 6)"

White="$(tput setaf 7)"
WhiteBG="$(tput setab 7)"

reset=`tput sgr0` # turns off all atribute
Bold=$(tput bold)
Normal=$(tput sgr0)

echo ""
echo "${Purple}${Bold} Type ${reset}:" 
 $file $1
echo "" 
echo "${Red}${Bold} Location ${reset}:
 "$PWD/$1"" 
echo "" 
echo "${Green}${Bold} Size ${reset}: 
 $(du -sh $1)"
echo "" 
echo "${Yellow}${Bold} Contains ${reset}: 
 $(ls -lR $1 | egrep -c '^-') Files, $(ls -lR $1 | grep ^d | wc -l) Folders"
echo ""
echo "${Blue}${Bold} Sub-directories ${reset}: 
 $(du -sh $1/*/)"

Usage of the script

./directorory_properties.sh DirectoryName

./directorory_properties.sh is the bash script presented above.

Outcome of the script

Windows version of the properties for the same folder