$ ls Hold/* |wc /bin/ksh: /usr/bin/ls: arg list too long 0 0 0 $ ls Hold |wc 169170 169170 2739945 $ perl -lwe'@x=<"Hold/*">;print 0+@x' 0 $ perl -lwe'@x=glob"Hold/*";print 0+@x' 169170 $