[SOLVED] Argument list too long

avyadav555 · 12-06-2016, 03:00 AM

hi..
Iam trying to move some files into another directory but gettin "Argument list too long" error
how can I resolve it

ex:
# mv -v *.zip /mnt/directory

pan64 · 12-06-2016, 03:23 AM

try:
mv -v a*.zip /mnt/directory
find . -name \*.zip -exec mv {} /mnt/directory \;
use perl/python

MadeInGermany · 12-06-2016, 12:21 PM

A bit more efficient than

Code:

find . -name \*.zip -exec mv -v {} /mnt/directory \;

is

Code:

find . -name \*.zip -exec mv -v -t /mnt/directory {} +

chrism01 · 12-07-2016, 11:04 PM

I'm not sure OP wants recursion, so skipping 'find' (although you could use -maxdepth)

Code:

for file in $(ls|grep '\.zip')
do
    mv $file /mnt/directory
done

pan64 · 12-08-2016, 12:05 AM

I'm not really sure if $(ls|grep '\.zip') was really correct, but you can use simply *.zip instead. And also I'm not really sure if it solves the arg list too long error.

szboardstretcher · 12-08-2016, 12:31 AM

There are plenty of one liners but sometimes I like to throw a more easily loggable process into the mix. Especially if it is an enormous list of files that will take many hours to copy/move. I like to have a record. So if that is how you would like to approach it:

Get the filelist to operate on (adjust to fit need):

Code:

find . -name \*.zip > filelist

Make a shell script to move a file at a time from the filelist and record all output to 'results'.

I like to use 'cp' to test my script logic, and then change it to 'mv' once I know it is working as expected. So this script will only COPY. Change the command to MOVE them once you like the results.

Code:

set -x
while read -r filename
do
cp -v $filename /mnt/directory/ >> results 2>&1
done < filelist

Make the script executable and run the script and capture all of its output as well.

Code:

chmod +x script.sh
./script.sh | tee script.out

c0wb0y · 12-08-2016, 12:57 AM

While (no pun intended) doing an iteration might work and copy file one-at-a-time, why don't we batch copy it such as MadeInGermany's post

Quote:

find . -name \*.zip -exec mv -v -t /mnt/directory {} +

Also, 'find' info page shows a lot of useful info such as the one below I shamelessly copied:

Quote:

find /foo -maxdepth 1 -atime +366 -print0 | xargs -r0 sh -c 'mv "$@" /archive' move

which one can modify to suit.

szboardstretcher · 12-08-2016, 01:05 AM

Certainly an option. No argument there.

My option is more geared toward having to copy 45 million zip files while keeping system resources low and having a record of the results.

Reputation for all methods!!

pan64 · 12-08-2016, 02:03 AM

we may try to do a performance test, which one works faster.... but obviously it depends on the type of the filesystem, and also if it moves files onto another filesystem, the number/size of those files, depth of directory structure and .....

avyadav555 · 01-17-2017, 06:04 AM

This command work fine

echo *.zip | xargs mv -t /mnt/directory