Find mean read length of a bam file dataset of reads?

Question

[MobiusT]

I am working in a remote linux server and I have a dataset of reads in the file with extension bam extension. How to find its mean read length

[4galaxy77]

vcfs don't usually contain read length information

Answer 1

[Pierre Lindenbaum]

you can get the mean read length from a bam or a fastq file, not from a VCF.

[MobiusT]

Then, How to find from a bam file?

[Pierre Lindenbaum]

samtools stats in.bam | grep "average length"