Copy Files help script.

da_bizkit · 12-15-2009, 07:51 PM

Hello there. I have a school asignment to write some scripts, and so far i've done them, but i meet problem with 1 particular of them. To be honest i have no idea how to do that one... can somebody more experienced with linux help me ?

The idea is, that i have to write a script, that copies a file and makes backup file with unique extension and informing the user that there is backup made.

I am totally lost .. can you tell me how its done ? :/

indienick · 12-15-2009, 08:00 PM

Welcome to LQ - terse homework rules are as follows:
1. Provide what you've done so far.
1.1. Show us that you have, at least, made an attempt.
2. Don't expect us to do all of your work for you.

I'm not saying you are in conflict with point 2, it's still an item worth mentioning.

When you say "unique extension", what are you referring to? Do you mean a portion of the filename has to be unique? I ask this, simply because "extensions", while more so a leftover from the DOS world (and kept around for sake of compatibility with Windows systems), you usually do not want to use a "non-standard" file extension.

If a portion of the filename (and not the file extension) needs to be unique, then look into the date(1) command.

Code:

$ date +%m-%d-%Y
12-15-2009

da_bizkit · 12-15-2009, 08:24 PM

Well it doesn't work like it has to but i will still post what i've done.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo -n "Enter the name of the file to copy : "
read src
echo -n "Enter target file name : "
read targ
 
if [ -f $targ ]
then
	echo "File $targ exist. cannot overwrite"
	exit 1
fi
cp $src $targ

ghostdog74 · 12-15-2009, 08:28 PM

to make a backup, use the same cp command but give it a different name.

chrism01 · 12-15-2009, 08:31 PM

You might want to look at using the date for the extension as above. If you need more than one 'copy' of the same file per day, extend to using the time as well.
See these links:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

da_bizkit · 12-15-2009, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

to make a backup, use the same cp command but give it a different name.

well i know it has to be done with cp, but i have no idea how to make it.. :/ how to make it to add specific to the file nor how to announce that name to the user.
What if i do it like
"cp $src $targ $backup1
echo "File $backup1 created"

i know that this won't work but if it is something similar can someone point it out for me ?

Tinkster · 12-15-2009, 09:10 PM

Almost there ...
cp takes TWO file arguments in this case. What you want
to achieve is for $targ to be uniquely identified; see
chrism's post about date higher up in the thread