How to find files and copy the found files to the floppy in one command

justmehere · 05-03-2008, 09:15 PM

I am trying to find all files which are called index.* and at the same time want to copy the found files to the floppy drive ?

To find I typed in find / -name index* but how can I copy the same files to the floppy drive ?

Thanks

jimbo1708 · 05-03-2008, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justmehere

I am trying to find all files which are called index.* and at the same time want to copy the found files to the floppy drive ?

To find I typed in find / -name index* but how can I copy the same files to the floppy drive ?

Thanks

Hello,

why not try some variation of the following command. I don't use find, but rather locate.

Code:

root@mybox:/# for i in `locate index.`; do cp $i /media/destination/; done;

Please test and research before deploying, but this should be a good starting point. If you find that files are missing, run 'updatedb' as root to repopulate the locate database.

- Jim

jschiwal · 05-03-2008, 10:20 PM

You need to put the name inside double quotes:

Using / as the base directory isn't a good idea because you will be searching the entire system. You should have a better idea where the file would be.

find /usr -name "index*" -exec cp '{}' /mnt/floppy/ \;

eggixyz · 05-03-2008, 10:23 PM

Hey There,

You can also use the -exec flag for your find command, so it would look like this:

find / -name ".index*" -exec cp {} /dev/fd/ \;

Assuming /dev/fd is your floppy. As per the other suggestion, please test beforehand, just in case. That's always good advice

Best wishes,

Mike

justmehere · 05-04-2008, 11:11 AM

Thanks to all replies. I'll try them out.

Tinkster · 05-04-2008, 01:44 PM

The problem with that approach "cp {} /mnt/fd" is that if two
files happen to have the same name you'll only keep the version
it found on HDD last on floppy.

To eggixyz:

You *don't* copy to the raw device.... try the mounted device.

Cheers,
Tink

hasanatizaz · 05-04-2008, 02:15 PM

to execute any command while using find use ' \; '

justmehere · 05-04-2008, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

You need to put the name inside double quotes:

Using / as the base directory isn't a good idea because you will be searching the entire system. You should have a better idea where the file would be.

find /usr -name "index*" -exec cp '{}' /mnt/floppy/

Many thanks for the above example but I am getting the error when running the above exact command:

find: missing argument to '-exec'

justmehere · 05-04-2008, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eggixyz

Hey There,

You can also use the -exec flag for your find command, so it would look like this:

find / -name ".index*" -exec cp {} /dev/fd/ \;

Assuming /dev/fd is your floppy. As per the other suggestion, please test beforehand, just in case. That's always good advice

Best wishes,

Mike

Thanks for the above reply. This one worked for me. I might have been doing something wrong on the other suggesions.

Tinkster · 05-04-2008, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justmehere

Thanks for the above reply. This one worked for me. I might have been doing something wrong on the other suggesions.

The copy may have worked - but is the data on the floppy?

Cheers,
Tink

justmehere · 05-04-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkster

The copy may have worked - but is the data on the floppy?

Cheers,
Tink

Yes the files were copied to the floppy and they are valid files. Not sure may have missed the odd index file. But overall its working.

eggixyz · 05-04-2008, 11:29 PM

Hey There,

Glad that's working out for you

To clarify, Tinkster is correct that you should mount the floppy and then write to that file. I just shot that out there quickly.

The reason for this is that, if /dev/fd doesn't have a floppy mounted, your command won't fail. It's better practice to mount the floppy on /dev/fd and then do you cp to that mountpoint.

Thanks for heads-up, Tinkster. I often type first and ask questions later

Best wishes,

Mike