total in "ls -l" command ????

[Sangal-Arun]

What does total line refers in ls -l output ?

[Sangal-Arun]

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/giga] $ ls -ltr
total 24
-rw-rw-r--  1 qabuild DENCCEFS     5 Jul 24 21:03 1
-rw-rw-r--  1 qabuild DENCCEFS     5 Jul 24 21:03 2
-rw-rw-r--  1 qabuild DENCCEFS 10428 Jul 24 21:28 ls-ltr
drwxrwxr-x  2 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:35 chand/
drwxrwxr-x  3 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:35 pakoda/
drwxrwxr-x  3 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:45 giga1/

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/giga] $ du -ch ls-ltr
12K     ls-ltr
12K     total

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/giga] $ ls -ltra
total 40
drwxrwxr-x  26 qabuild DENCCEFS 12288 Jul 24 21:03 ../
-rw-rw-r--   1 qabuild DENCCEFS     5 Jul 24 21:03 1
-rw-rw-r--   1 qabuild DENCCEFS     5 Jul 24 21:03 2
-rw-rw-r--   1 qabuild DENCCEFS 10428 Jul 24 21:28 ls-ltr
drwxrwxr-x   2 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:35 chand/
drwxrwxr-x   3 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:35 pakoda/
drwxrwxr-x   3 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:45 giga1/
drwxrwxr-x   5 qabuild DENCCEFS  4096 Jul 24 21:51 ./

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/giga] $

total in first case is 24...which is 4 for chand folder, 4 for pakoda folder, 4 for giga1 folder and 12 for ls-ltr file (note: 10428 bytes of file will not fit in 4+4 KB of 2 blocks that's why 3 blocks of 4 KB) i.e. 12 KB.

Thus, 12, 4+4+4= 24.

now, how come it's reflecting 40 ???? with "a" option with ls command.

[secondmouse]

ls -la lists files (including directories) names that start with . (dot) while ls -l does not.

[scm]

And the -A option supresses the display of current (.) and parent (..) directories.