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Im looking for a way to merge 2 directories together.
Either the second into the first, or both into a new tree, either way works for my needs.
What I want to happen is to have ALL files moved from the source to the target, but if the name conflicts, I want to keep both files, probably by adding a suffix or something similar.
I need to make sure that I don't loose any files from either tree, even if the names conflict. At this time, I don't care if the files are identical, I can sweep for identical files later using a md5/file-compare method.
My first thought was to use rsync, but I don't think I can configure it to rename the target file if it already exists.
Second thought was to create a directory list from both trees and create a new directory tree using 'mkdir -p' which has both source trees. Then I could use 'mv -i', but that makes it interactive rather than automated. For this method to work, I would need a 'mv' command which would 'fail' if the target exists, then I could trap the failure in the script and force a new target name...
cd dir1
for i in *; do
dest="../dir2/$i"
if [[ -e "$dest" ]]; then
dest=${dest}.dir1_backup
fi
echo mv "$i" "$dest"
done
Change dir1 and dir2 to your source and destination directories respectively. Run it once as-is, make sure it's doing what you expect, and if you're happy with the result remove the "echo" and run it again to actually move the files.
I would first use the mv '-n' no clobber option to first merge the directories without overwriting any files. Then for each file (for loop) I would then use mv '--backup=numbered'.
cd dir1
for i in *; do
dest="../dir2/$i"
if [[ -e "$dest" ]]; then
dest=${dest}.dir1_backup
fi
echo mv "$i" "$dest"
done
Change dir1 and dir2 to your source and destination directories respectively. Run it once as-is, make sure it's doing what you expect, and if you're happy with the result remove the "echo" and run it again to actually move the files.
I tried your suggestion, however it doesn't treat special characters correctly. I'm having issues with directory and file names which include dollar signs, spaces, back-slashes, ampersands and the like...
I would first use the mv '-n' no clobber option to first merge the directories without overwriting any files. Then for each file (for loop) I would then use mv '--backup=numbered'.
My version of 'mv' doesn't seem to have the "-n" option...
Ew, why do you have directory/file names with those kinds of characters? Spaces are one thing, but backslashes, dollar signs, ampersands? Scripting anything with those files is going to be a nightmare.
That script should work fine for files with spaces, but I wouldn't even know where to begin on the others.
You could try putting quotes around the "${dest}.dir1_backup" and see where that gets you. I generally leave off quotes when a space won't hurt things (such as assigning the string to a variable), but I suppose other characters could cause problems there.
Last edited by suicidaleggroll; 02-05-2015 at 11:48 AM.
Using the --backup option existing destination files can be renamed with a suffix.
rsync -bavr /source /destination
However, the files only get renamed once. Running the same command twice will overwrite the existing files. I would make backups of both directories if possible and test using the dry run option. I have not tried using the backup option
Ew, why do you have directory/file names with those kinds of characters? Spaces are one thing, but backslashes, dollar signs, ampersands? Scripting anything with those files is going to be a nightmare.
That script should work fine for files with spaces, but I wouldn't even know where to begin on the others.
You could try putting quotes around the "${dest}.dir1_backup" and see where that gets you. I generally leave off quotes when a space won't hurt things (such as assigning the string to a variable), but I suppose other characters could cause problems there.
I don't have much of a choice. The directories are backups/archives of user files, and users can do pretty much anything which is "legal". Some example directories in the list:
.../AT&T Diagram and Firewall Policies 10-08-2009/
.../Fitness & Newspaper $15/
.../CustExt - PH/
.../Add'l Info/
Well, I suppose I could create a more recent CentOS 6.6 VM and move the directories there to get this working.
The need for the merge happened because we had 2 different backup systems, and I need to merge the old stuff with the new stuff.
I want to get the old stuff moved into the new backup server tree, but without loosing anything or overwriting any of the new backups.
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