Using "du" command without outputting filepath

Question

So i want to display the filename and the size of the file in MB using the "du" command in my bash script but it outputs the filepath for the file

I have used the command:

du -s -BM /home/user/test/test_file_check

But my output is:

0M      /home/user/test/test_file_check

How do i get rid of the /home/user/test path from the output? Would it be possible to use sed to remove the filepath?

Is there alternatively another command better suited for this?

Answer 1

Since sed does greedy matching by default:

du -s -BM /home/user/test/test_file_check | sed 's|/.*/||'

sed is going to match the longest line that matches /.*/ (ie, greedy match) and then replace it with nothing (||). NOTE: since the data includes the / character we need a different script delimiter hence the use of | as the sed script delimiter

Simulating your du output:

$ echo '0M      /home/user/test/test_file_check' | sed 's|/.*/||'
0M      test_file_check

Answer 2

A slightly tongue in cheek approach. This navigates to the directory and does the du in the local directory, then navigates back to the previous location.

cd /home/user/test/ && du -s -BM test_file_check && cd - > /dev/null || return
0M      test_file_check