[SOLVED] Copy files by skipping parent directory

Dman58 · 04-14-2020, 09:25 PM

Hi I'm trying to copy a large list of files from a directory. The directory format is as follows.

Code:

Folder-
   Parent-
      Subfolder-
          files to copy
   Parent-
      Subfolder-
          files to copy
   Parent-
      Subfolder-
          files to copy

What I want is the subfolder and its contents skipping over the parent directory. I believe I need to use either some Regex or some kind of find command solution. I have tried the following with all kinds of various output.

This seems to be a good starting point, it shows the directories I want to begin with but when I try to pipe it into copy it seems to not like the syntax

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -maxdepth 2

This semi worked but files were copied into wrong locations:

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -maxdepth 2 | xargs cp -R /tmp/box2

Not working

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -maxdepth 2 -type f -print0 | xargs cp -R /tmp/box2

pan64 · 04-15-2020, 01:54 AM

Probably:

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -maxdepth 2 | xargs cp -t /target/dir

if you use -print0 you need to add -0 to xargs

But probably I misunderstood, would be nice to explain where do you copy from (files) and where do you want to copy to.
"skipping" is not really meaningful.

MadeInGermany · 04-15-2020, 02:18 AM

I think you want to recursivly copy the following

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2

with cp -rp

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -exec cp -rp -t /target/dir {} \;

GazL · 04-15-2020, 06:14 AM

How about:
cd Folder && cp -r -t /targetdir */*

P.S.
You might want to be wary of name collisions when you remove a level of a hierarchy like that. '-i' on the cp might not be such a bad idea.

Dman58 · 04-15-2020, 06:21 PM

Thanks for the replies. It didn't work quite as expected on the actual file hierarchy it was intended for but I was still able to transfer them successfully. I will mark this as solved.
The following was able to transfer my files as a normal cp operation. The original sample directory worked with this syntax but when I tried on my production environment I wasn't able to get the results expected.

Code:

find /tmp/box1 -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -exec cp -rp -t /target/dir {} \;

This one worked in the sample but failed on the production all together.

Code:

cd Folder && cp -r -t /targetdir */*

Appreciate the suggestions and will explore different scenarios and syntax.