File size calculation question

[M0E-lnx]

I've been wondering about this for a while... Maybe someone can shed some light here

In a normal shell app like xterm, doing ls -l returns list of files  with names, persmissions, and sizes

Let's talk about the sizes part
Since I started fidling with computers and stuff, I understand the different types of measuring units

Byte
KB
MB
GB
TB

And probabbly more than that
My question is, how do we calculate these things?
AFAIK, 1024B = 1MB
1024MB = 1GB

I'm trying to convert a file size from B to MB

can anyone think of a formula to do this?

[exeterdad]

Ohhhhh maaaaaan!  I'm nowhere near the machine with all those notes on it.  I had......  Wait brb I think the machine is booted.  I'll try to ssh and look for the notes.

[exeterdad]

It's Bytes/1048576

or Bytes divided by 1048576.
I've been working on a script to transfer mp3's and files to a mtp device.  Needed to covert bytes to MB for the nifty progress meter

[The Headacher]

Actually, the amount of Bytes / kiloByte differs per ... well it differs.

Officially though:
kilo = 10³
Mega = 10⁶
Giga = 10⁹

you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte

[M0E-lnx]

So how exactly should the conversion be done?

I've got something like this

MB = Bytes / (1024 * 1024)
is this accurate enough to use?

[The Headacher]

That will do nicely:

1024x1024 = 1,048,576 (like exeterdad said)

It would be faster to devide through 1,048,576, that saves a multiplication (and a tiny but of memory to hold the 1024) every time that code is executed. The other possibility is to devide through 1,000,000. Both are correct and wrong, it's whichever you think is the correct one that you should use .

Depending on the programming language you use you might have to typecast Bytes or 1,048,576 (or both) as (double) floats rather than (long) ints to make sure the answer isn't always rounded down to an integer. For instance, if you'd devide 1,048,575 through 1,048,576 in C without typecasting it, the answer would be 0.

[Triarius Fidelis]

kilobyte - 2^10 bytes
megabyte - 2^10 kilobytes
gigabyte - 2^10 megabytes

etc. ... powers add

[easuter]

Actually, the amount of Bytes / kiloByte differs per ... well it differs.

Officially though:
kilo = 10³
Mega = 10⁶
Giga = 10⁹

you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte

Yeah, powers of two and not powers of ten, like hanumizzle mentioned (1 byte = 8 bits, not 10).
Sneaky hard drive manufacturers love mixing the two up...   

[MikeCindi]

Yeah, powers of two and not powers of ten, like hanumizzle mentioned (1 byte = 8 bits, not 10).
Sneaky hard drive manufacturers love mixing the two up...   

Should we boycott those drive makers who are using the base 10 system for "cheating" us out of storage space?! 

[BlueMage]

So.... boycott all of them?

[MikeCindi]

Well, perhaps it's really an issue between BIOS makers and drive makers and they're just trying to confuse me. Here's a quote from IBM:

Note: The Maximum Capacity may be smaller than the stated capacity of the drive. This is because
the BIOS of some systems recognizes a Megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes (binary). Drive manufacturers
recognize a Megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes (decimal). The capacities are the same in actual number of
bytes.

and from Seagate/Maxtor:

The storage industry standard is to display capacity in decimal. Even though in binary you have more bytes, the decimal representation of a gigabyte shows greater capacity. In order to accurately understand the true capacity of your hard drive, you have to know which base unit of measure (binary or decimal) is being used to represent capacity...
Simply put, decimal and binary translates to the same amount of storage capacity. Let's say you wanted to measure the distance from point A to point B. The distance from A to B is one kilometer or .621 miles. It is the same distance, but it is reported differently due to the measurement.

(must be new math  )

and similarly from Western Digital:

Megabyte. WD defines a megabyte as 1,000,000 (one million) bytes.

So if they "all" do it the same, using decimal, why do I feel like I've lost something when the OS uses binary. I guess I'll just have to get over it...

[rbistolfi]

Well may be I am a bit plain, but I can't see how 1,048,576 can be binary. Both are decimal and same unit (number of bytes), and 1,048,576 > 1,000,000.

[Triarius Fidelis]

Well may be I am a bit plain, but I can't see how 1,048,576 can be binary. Both are decimal and same unit (number of bytes), and 1,048,576 > 1,000,000.

Code:

hanumizzle:$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, May  4 2007, 16:52:23)
[GCC 4.1.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import math
>>> math.log(1048576, 2)
20.0

[The Headacher]

Should we boycott those drive makers who are using the base 10 system for "cheating" us out of storage space?! 

Actually, I think it's perfectly fine to use 1000 for a kilobyte (kilo means 1000, not 1024). It's the software manufacturers that made us believe 1024 bytes are a kilobyte because it was easier for them.

[Triarius Fidelis]

Should we boycott those drive makers who are using the base 10 system for "cheating" us out of storage space?! 

Actually, I think it's perfectly fine to use 1000 for a kilobyte (kilo means 1000, not 1024). It's the software manufacturers that made us believe 1024 bytes are a kilobyte because it was easier for them.

The software convention of 1024 bytes per KB is correct, because it is more natural. Decimal-based computers basically ceased to be in the late 1940's. As such, the sizes of hard drives and memory units are best measured in units of 2ⁿ.