[Bug 1571849] [NEW] Making the output "total" from ls more self-explanatory

[Sworddragon]

Public bug reported:

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 with coreutils 8.25-2ubuntu2 and for example on
executing "ls -al" on an empty directory I'm getting as output in the
first line "total 8" with 2 following lines containing the listings for
the files "." and "..". Actually I have no idea what "total" stands for
as the probably most plausible explanation of being the number of files
listed doesn't seem to match. Maybe this line could be reworded to be
more self-explanatory.

** Affects: coreutils (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1571849

Title:
  Making the output "total" from ls more self-explanatory

Status in coreutils package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 with coreutils 8.25-2ubuntu2 and for example on
  executing "ls -al" on an empty directory I'm getting as output in the
  first line "total 8" with 2 following lines containing the listings
  for the files "." and "..". Actually I have no idea what "total"
  stands for as the probably most plausible explanation of being the
  number of files listed doesn't seem to match. Maybe this line could be
  reworded to be more self-explanatory.

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