How to copy a directory tree without copying the files in it?

system · 12-29-2001, 02:27 PM

Hello. I want to copy a directory and all the subdirectories in order to make a duplicate of the directory structure. I don't want to copy any of the files though, just directories. Isn't this possible using cp and telling it to copy only files with the dir flag set or something?

bluecadet · 12-30-2001, 09:59 AM

well, it's a bit of an odd thing to want to do, so i doubt there's a nice way to do it officially. i did however write a script pretty similar last night actually!

Code:

cd "$1"
for i in *
do
  if [ -d "$i" ]
  then
    newdirpath=`echo "$PWD/$i" | sed s/smb// | tr ' ' '_' | tr A-Z a-z | sed s/_-_/-/`
    echo $newdirpath
    mkdir "$newdirpath"
    find "$PWD/$i" -iname '*.mp3' -fprint "$newdirpath"/mp3.m3u 
    /home/chris/clone "$i"    
  fi
done
cd -

it creates a replica of a directory tree with a winamp/xmms m3u file in every single directory of every mp3 in that directory, and recursive subdirectories. It also converts spaces to underscores and all letters to lower case.

I was gonna hack it around, and take out various bits.. but i think i'll leave that for you to do if you decide to!

oh, as it works recursively, the program IS /home/chris/clone... which obviosuly isn't right for you...

incidentally, if you wanna alter it to not create leaf-directories, i'd gladly accept the ocde back!

kervin · 01-15-2002, 09:36 PM

find . -type d -exec mkdir -p /tmp/copy_dest2/{} \;

This line should do it.

The first '.' ( dot ) is for current directory and can be replace by the directory name you're about to copy. The /tmp/copy_dest2 is the path you'd like to copy to, and can also be replaced.

the above will not follow symlinks, but can be modified to.