# Need help with output formatting **URL:** \ **Category:** Shell Programming and Scripting\ **Created:** [April 2, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663 "2012-04-02T14:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/nick1097/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/u/Nick1097)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/1 "2012-04-02T14:39:50Z")
Hey can anyone help me with newline formatting? i bet someone will ask why im rewriting du code, im trying to write a simple script that have slightly different function than du lol.... ```nohighlight echo $(du "$dval" | tr ' ' '\n') ``` atm with above code it will printout i've tried sed and awk... cant understand how it works... sry im new to shell 4 Documents/Templates 4 Documents/Music 4 Documents/Pictures 4 Documents/Videos 20 Documents how to i make the output into 4 Documents/Templates 4 Documents/Music 4 Documents/Pictures 4 Documents/Videos 20 Documents like the normal format u will get when just use du Documents? ---
**Author:** ![Corona688](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/corona688/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Corona688](https://community.unix.com/u/Corona688)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/2 "2012-04-02T14:47:36Z")
Just run it -- by itself. No backticks needed. No echo needed. No tr needed. ---
**Author:** ![Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/nick1097/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/u/Nick1097)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/3 "2012-04-02T15:06:23Z")
by running by itself u mean by $(du "$dval") ? cant it says Documents: not found thanks for the quick reply btw ---
**Author:** ![Corona688](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/corona688/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Corona688](https://community.unix.com/u/Corona688)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/4 "2012-04-02T15:09:30Z")
By 'by itself' I mean ```nohighlight du Documents ``` Just that, only that, nothing but that. When it says 'file not found', it almost certainly means what it says -- there's nothing named 'Documents' in the current directory for it to measure the size of. What does the output of `ls` look like? ---
**Author:** ![Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/nick1097/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/u/Nick1097)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/5 "2012-04-02T15:38:36Z")
oo haha i did that and it works.. thanks alot btw got bit more problems hehe ```nohighlight if [$# -ne "0"] then for p in $@; do (du $dval | grep "$p") done; ``` that code is to get the size of specific directory i want.. is there a way i need to get total sum for each of the specified directory there's a way to do it with du -s file1 file2 but that require me to be inside the directory that contain file1 and file2 ---------- Post updated at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:24 PM ---------- oo nvm i found out that i can use the find function to do that lol ---------- Post updated at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:38 PM ---------- thanks alot for the previous help 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Corona688](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/corona688/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Corona688](https://community.unix.com/u/Corona688)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/6 "2012-04-02T15:45:37Z")
You don't need the find utility to use a folder which you already know of. All find is doing is printing out the relative path for you. Just give du a full path or a relative path to where you want. ```nohighlight # Relative path, the OS will assume the path begins with '/path/to/currentfolder/' du path/to/file # Absolute path, starts at / du /absolute/path/to/whatever ``` ---
**Author:** ![Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/nick1097/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Nick1097](https://community.unix.com/u/Nick1097)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/7 "2012-04-03T03:46:45Z")
lol... sometimes i wonder y i just cant see the easier way .. thanks again ---------- Post updated 04-03-12 at 02:46 AM ---------- Previous update was 04-02-12 at 02:55 PM ---------- hmm now im trying to make an alternate du function ```nohighlight du test | grep a ``` above will print out 4 test/a/b 8 test/a i try with ```nohighlight ls -RFs test | grep a ``` it doesnt really give me the same result.. is there anyway i can achieve that? ---
**Author:** ![Corona688](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/corona688/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Corona688](https://community.unix.com/u/Corona688)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/need-help-with-output-formatting/307663/8 "2012-04-03T13:17:17Z")
Why not just ```nohighlight ls -RFs test/*a* ```