Finding files and copying to a another place

hacback17 · 12-06-2020, 07:52 AM

Hi pals, I am trying to find all the files that are more than 2 days old, then only taking 10 files and copying them to my current working directory. The command I am using is

Code:

sudo find / -type f -mtime +2 2>/dev/null -exec tail -n 10 {} \; -exec cp {} . \;

but this doesn't produce the expected output. And, I'm not able to spot the mistake. Could you please help?

pan64 · 12-06-2020, 09:56 AM

in your example tail will print the first 10 lines of every file found.
you might want to do something like:

Code:

find .... | tail ... | xargs ....

Do you really need that sudo at the beginning?

Is this your homework?

hacback17 · 12-06-2020, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

in your example tail will print the first 10 lines of every file found.
you might want to do something like:

Code:

find .... | tail ... | xargs ....

Do you really need that sudo at the beginning?

Is this your homework?

Thanks! Well, this is part of a bigger assignment but as you may notice I am learning these pieces and learning to put them together rather than asking someone to do the assignment on my behalf.

In relation to the question, I haven't been able to produce the desired output. But I am working at it:

Code:

find / -type f -mtime +2 2>/dev/null | tail -n 5 | xargs cp -p /home/osboxes/audios/

The error I am getting is:

Code:

cp: target '/tmp/netstat' is not a directory

I appreciate your help!

Turbocapitalist · 12-06-2020, 10:47 AM

Lookup the -t option for the cp utility.

Also, if there are spaces in the file or directory names, then you'll want to use -print0 instead of -print with find and --zero-terminated for tail and --null for xargs.

hacback17 · 12-06-2020, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbocapitalist

Also, if there are spaces in the file or directory names, then you'll want to use -print0 instead of -print with find and --zero-terminated for tail and --null for xargs.

I am sorry I couldn't understand you. I haven't used -print anywhere. What are you trying to suggest? Thanks anyway for your willingness to help!

pan64 · 12-06-2020, 11:57 AM

see man find (for example). -print is there, by default, otherwise find will not print the result. If you have files or dirs whith space[s] in their names (like: My Folder, Home Dir, or anything similar) then you need to use -print0.

hacback17 · 12-06-2020, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

see man find (for example). -print is there, by default, otherwise find will not print the result. If you have files or dirs whith space[s] in their names (like: My Folder, Home Dir, or anything similar) then you need to use -print0.

Oh, I now understand what you meant. So I included that option too. But the output is still this:

Code:

[osboxes@osboxes audios]$ find / -type f -mtime +2 -print0 2>/dev/null | tail -n 5 | xargs --null cp -p .
cp: target '/home/osboxes/.local/share/Trash/files/sysstat-12.5.1/tests/04120' is not a directory
cp: target '/home/osboxes/.cache/mozilla/firefox/u8yq4oi3.default-default/cache2/entries/086767472BEAC57998BD85866314BF1EAE9E6B0A' is not a directory
cp: target '/var/log/vboxadd-install.log' is not a directory
cp: target '/usr/lib/modules/4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hwmon/lm83.ko.xz' is not a directory
...

Turbocapitalist · 12-06-2020, 12:16 PM

All the utilities will need options for null-termination for that:

Code:

find / -type f -mtime +2 -print0 2>/dev/null \
| tail --zero-terminated -n 5 \
| xargs --null cp -p -t .

Then cp will benefit from the -t option. That will allow the source to come last. Otherwise you would have needed the -I option for xargs instead.

hacback17 · 12-06-2020, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbocapitalist

All the utilities will need options for null-termination for that:

Code:

find / -type f -mtime +2 -print0 2>/dev/null \
| tail --zero-terminated -n 5 \
| xargs --null cp -p -t .

Then cp will benefit from the -t option. That will allow the source to come last. Otherwise you would have needed the -I option for xargs instead.

Awesome! Worked well this time. I was almost getting frustrated. Thanks for helping out!

Turbocapitalist · 12-06-2020, 12:38 PM

No problem. Be sure to look up each of the options used above in the manual pages. The idea is not so much to remember them as to be able to comfortably look stuff up as needed.