[SOLVED] Command to copy files older than <n> days keeping dir structure.

MoonMan89 · 07-06-2010, 06:26 PM

Hey Guys,
I'm trying to truncate a postfix Maildata directory for one of our users.
I want to be able to move any files older than <n> days to a new location, but also copying the relevant directory structure. This should be doable in the one comman. I've used find to locate the files, and mv to move them, but I can't figure out how to build the directoryt structure on the fly in the new location.

This is what I have so far:

Code:

 find /Maildata/editor -mtime +42 -type f -exec mv -v {} /EditorEmailOld/ \; > ~/editor.txt

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

Tinkster · 07-06-2010, 07:56 PM

Hi, welcome to LQ!

You could create a script ... something like [untested!!]:
mv_w_dir.sh

Code:

#!/bin/bash
file=$1
dir=$(dirname $file)
mkdir -p /EditorEmailOld/${dir}
mv -v $file /EditorEmailOld/${dir}

Not elegant, no error checking, won't handle embedded spaces, ....

Use the script in your exec-statement.

Cheers,
Tink

MoonMan89 · 07-07-2010, 12:14 AM

Hmm,
I've got special characters in the files, and maybe spaces.
I've seen someone use CPIO but I've never used that command and don't really understand it.

I may just have to add support for spaces/special chars into that script above.

Thanks!

colucix · 07-07-2010, 02:20 AM

To manage spaces and special characters, double quotes around $dir and $file might be enough. An alternative could be rsync, which is suited to recreate the directory structure and manage weird file names as well. For example:

Code:

$ cd /Maildata/editor
$ find . -mtime +42 -type f | rsync -av --dry-run --files-from=- . /EditorEmailOld

Please note two things: 1. running the find command inside the source directory avoids additional steps to strip out the leading (unwanted) directories from the destination path (otherwise you will end-up with a directory /EditorEmailOld/Maildata/editor containing the copied files); 2. I intentionally put the option --dry-run of rsync for testing purposes: it just mimics the behaviour of rsync without actually copying anything. After you've checked the result (verbose output) you can safely run the command again without it. Hope this helps.

MoonMan89 · 07-15-2010, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

To manage spaces and special characters, double quotes around $dir and $file might be enough. An alternative could be rsync, which is suited to recreate the directory structure and manage weird file names as well. For example:

Code:

$ cd /Maildata/editor
$ find . -mtime +42 -type f | rsync -av --dry-run --files-from=- . /EditorEmailOld

Thank you, This was exactly what I needed.