Directory contains 26,000 files. How to split into sub-dirs?

BrianK · 05-10-2004, 03:45 PM

I have a directory that contains nearly 26,000 files that have been created over the last couple of years. What is a good way to move them into subdirs with some meaning, i.e. all files up to a certain date get moved into a subdir with a name of that date (or something along those lines)?

I could do it by hand, but I'm sure there's a better way.

If doing it by date is too difficult, I don't mine moving them into subdirs with say, 1500 files each - as long as the files remain in chronological order, in other words, all files in dir 'A' are older than all files in dir 'B' are older than all files in dir 'C' etc.etc.

Thanks

iainr · 05-10-2004, 04:11 PM

Here's an idea.

Get the filenames into a big file in the order you want.

e.g. if you want to split on name :
ls > file
on date
ls -t > file

Then use the split command to create smaller files.

e.g. split -l 1000 file
to create 26 files, each of 1000 lines.

Now you can move all the files listed in each of the 26 files into a separate directory.

e.g
while read FILE < xaa
do
mv $FILE newdir
done

acid_kewpie · 05-10-2004, 04:15 PM

ok, i've not really tested squat, but something like this should suffice.

Code:

for i in *
do
   filemonth=`stat $i | grep Access | cut -c 13-15,31-32`
   if [ ! -d $filemonth ] 
      mkdir $filemonth
   fi
   mv $i $filemonth\$i
done

have a bash! This should move all files into directories such as "apr04" or "oct03"

BrianK · 05-10-2004, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by acid_kewpie
ok, i've not really tested squat, but something like this should suffice.
...
This should move all files into directories such as "apr04" or "oct03"

good idea! this is the way I did it:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

for i in *
do
  filemonth=`stat --format=%y $i | cut -c 0-7`
  mkdir -p $filemonth
  mv $i $filemonth/$i
done

evidently, your stat and my stat return different info. This script creates directories that look like this:
2003-09
2003-10
2003-11
2003-12
2004-01
2004-02

Thanks for the suggestion!

acid_kewpie · 05-12-2004, 04:37 PM

hehe.. you mean you actually read the stat manpage unlike me... plus points there for sure!