... | awk '{a+=$3} END {print a}' or awk '{a+=$2} END {print a}' < /dfs/cdrom/usp*/3mil.Done - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - One drawback of using awk to total things up, is that it reports big numbers in exponential format, e.g. ls -l *tar | awk '{a+=$5} END {print a}' returned 6.78954e+09 To get the true number, revert to the sed-to-add-a-plus-sign | bc method, e.g. echo "a=0\n$(ls -l *tar | awk '{print $5}'|sed 's/^/a=a+/')\na"|bc which returned 6789539840