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Old 04-30-2009, 07:13 PM   #1
brian.m
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Bash script to copy contents of folder

*** SOLUTION ***
find /Source/*/*/*/*/*/ -type d -exec cp -R {} /Dest/ \;
*** SOLUTION ***

I have been looking for a bash (.sh) script or alike (anything that can be run as a linux script) which will copy the files contained within a folder. The catch is that i want a new directory created with only part of the directory structure. For example, i want the following copied:

Code:
- Test
   - 11
      - 111
         - 8888
   - 12
      - 123
         - 9999
to:

Code:
- Folder
   - 8888
   - 9999
Any ideas?
Last edited by brian.m; 05-01-2009 at 05:35 PM.
 
Old 04-30-2009, 07:22 PM   #2
billymayday
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Could you give a bit more detail on the rules to follow? Is it just 3 levels down, How did you determine the numbering? Etc.
 
Old 04-30-2009, 07:36 PM   #3
brian.m
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It is actually 5 levels down (i.e., \1\2\3\4\5), consistently. The numbering and structure of the directory is automatically generated through a php upload script. If possible, it would be nice to be able to filter the files to copy based on file type (i.e., *.zip) but this is the least of my concern.
Last edited by brian.m; 04-30-2009 at 07:40 PM.
 
Old 04-30-2009, 08:07 PM   #4
billymayday
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How about

find ./*/*/*/*/*/ -type d -exec cp -R {} (need sed processing on {} to ingnore leading \'s for destination) \;
 
Old 04-30-2009, 08:40 PM   #5
brian.m
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I ran this command inside ~/temp1 :

Code:
find /home/username/folder/*/*/*/*/*/ -type d -exec cp -R {} . \;
which yielded the following:

Code:
cp: cannot stat `/home/username/folder/0/1/2/3/9999/temp1/9999/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1/temp1': File name too long
What am I doing wrong?
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:05 PM   #6
billymayday
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I'm not sure, since it seems to work for me.

Are you by any chance currently in the path that's being found? You may be creating a recursion
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:23 PM   #7
ghostdog74
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you can use -mindepth (GNU find)
Code:
 find . -mindepth 4 -type d .....
 
Old 05-01-2009, 08:50 AM   #8
brian.m
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Quote:
Originally Posted by billymayday View Post
I'm not sure, since it seems to work for me.

Are you by any chance currently in the path that's being found? You may be creating a recursion
No, I wasn't in the current path. I'm not sure what I did, but it is working now. Thank you very much for your help!
 
Old 05-01-2009, 06:08 PM   #9
brian.m
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I appreciate your help! The solution is to use the following command:
find /Source/*/*/*/*/*/ -type d -exec cp -R {} /Dest/ \;

Is there a way to use additional criteria to only copy directories which contain specific files? For example, I want the directory created but to only copy file with the naming convention 1.jpg and not 1a.jpg?
Last edited by brian.m; 05-01-2009 at 06:13 PM.
 
  


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