Is it possible to import a Unix directory into an Excel spreadsheet

[Arkitech]

Does anyone know if it's possible to import a Unix directory into an Excel spreadsheet?

I'm trying to create a report based on about several thousand files within a Unix server directory, I was thinking if I could import the directory into a spreadsheet it would be easier to sort the data based on whatever criteria I needed. (dates, file size, etc..) Unfortunately I'm a ultra-newb when it comes to Unix, I know a few basic commands but very little on data sorting. Thanks for any suggestions

 

[notfred]

ls -l > text.txt

open text.txt in excel.

 

[Drakkon]

ls -l > directory.csv
csv opens in excel

 

[Nothinman]

ls -l > directory.csv
csv opens in excel

Except that it won't open properly because it's not comma seperated. He would need to go through the data import stuff to get everything in columns like he wants it.

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

ls -l > directory.csv
csv opens in excel

Except that it won't open properly because it's not comma seperated. He would need to go through the data import stuff to get everything in columns like he wants it.

yeah but i dont think theres anyway around having to import it in some way....

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

ls -l > directory.csv
csv opens in excel

Except that it won't open properly because it's not comma seperated. He would need to go through the data import stuff to get everything in columns like he wants it.

Ok, then:
ls -l | perl -nle "s/\s+/,/g;print" > file.csv

 

[Arkitech]

Thanks for all the info guys, Notfred you are the man.


One more newb question, I'm pulling the directory info from a root I don't have access to so I can't save any files there. How do I save the output either to my home directory or to my hard drive (if that's even possible)

 

[notfred]

just use the full path:

ls -l | perl -nle "s/\s+/,/g;print" > /home/wherever/file.csv