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    To further this answer, you can use the -n switch with echo to "not output the trailing newline". With echo -n "h" > some_file you will get a size of 1. Commented May 18, 2017 at 19:53
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    We know the file contains a newline too, since that's what cat printed! Commented May 18, 2017 at 20:10
  • So why is it 8 512-byte blocks instead of 1 512-block? @ilkkachu good catch cat is telling us! Because cat some_file gives h% which means there is no newline on OS X Commented May 18, 2017 at 20:24
  • @mbigras, because the actual block size on your disk is 4096 bytes, not 512. If you are using OS X, issue diskutil info / | grep "Block Size" Commented May 18, 2017 at 20:37
  • So because the file contains 2 bytes OS X allocates 4096 bytes for that file, which is 512*8 and therefore there are 8 512-byte blocks allocated for that file? Commented May 18, 2017 at 21:04