Processing multiple files in a directory and moving them.

keysorsoze · 12-25-2007, 09:58 AM

Hi! I am trying to rename a large number of files in a particular directory and move them into a new directory.

Ex: /var/named

file1.db, file2.db file3.db - rename to file (strip off .db) and move to new directory /var/named/new/file, file2, file3

Here is my attempt to complete this but its not functioning:

cd /var/named

echo *.db | sed -e 's/.db//' |xargs `mv /var/named/new`

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

tommytomthms5 · 12-25-2007, 10:01 AM

im no expert but you might wanna try commands such as "dd" or "cp"

edit: my book says use "mv"

keysorsoze · 12-25-2007, 10:10 AM

Ok I tried the following command with no luck as either?

find *.db | sed -e 's/.db//' |xargs cp -R /var/named/new/

pwc101 · 12-25-2007, 10:18 AM

Code:

for original in ./*.db; do
   cp $original /var/named/new/$(basename $original .db)
done

Substitute mv for cp if you want to move the files.

jschiwal · 12-25-2007, 10:29 AM

You could use variable substitution:

Code:

for file in *.db; do
  mv "$file" $DESTDIR/"${file%.db}"
done

The %.db will remove .db from the end of the variable.

tommytomthms5 · 12-25-2007, 10:52 AM

if i wanted to take say "file" and copy it multiple times to a directory like file0,file1,file2,file3,file4 etc. how would i do it?

pwc101 · 12-25-2007, 12:01 PM

Code:

for suffix in {0..100}; do
   cp file /your/destination/directory/"file"$suffix;
done

is one way to do it.

tommytomthms5 · 12-25-2007, 12:10 PM

that did a whole lot of nothing anything else that might make say 50 copies of one file

Uncle_Theodore · 12-25-2007, 12:33 PM

My two cents.

Code:

for file in *.db; do mv $file new/${file%.db}; done

pwc101 · 12-25-2007, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommytomthms5

that did a whole lot of nothing anything else that might make say 50 copies of one file

Your original request was:

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommytomthms5

take say "file" and copy it multiple times to a directory

which I took to mean copy a file (called "file" in the example I gave) multiple times.

Code:

for suffix in {0..100}; do
   input_file=/some/file/you/want/to/copy
   cp $input_file /some/destination/directory/$(basename $input_file)"$suffix"; done
done

That will take a file as defined in the variable input_file and output it to /some/destination/directory named whatever $input_file was called, but with a number added as a suffix.

Please clarify if that's not what you meant.

Some pleases and thankyous (plus some commas) wouldn't go amiss either.

keysorsoze · 12-25-2007, 03:50 PM

Guys using the script below works perfectly, but can't we run this as a command in conjunction with xargs? Just curious if not I'll just use the script. I would ideally like to run this as a command for a quick job rather than scripting out a file. I never new %.db was even possible. Need to do some reading on variable substitution.

for original in ./*.db; do
cp $original /var/named/new/$(basename $original .db)
done

Thanks for the help once again guys.

Edit Sorry I did not try at the CLI that did the job without a script. Sweet!!!!

for file in *.db; do mv $file new/${file%.db}; done

Uncle_Theodore · 12-25-2007, 03:54 PM

What prevents you from running this as a command? Just type this in a terminal

for original in ./*.db; do cp $original /var/named/new/$(basename $original .db); done

and voila!

keysorsoze · 12-25-2007, 03:56 PM

Thanks Uncle_Theodore, I just gave that a shot. I didn't know you could run for loops at the terminal.

tommytomthms5 · 12-25-2007, 08:09 PM

pwc101 yours worked after i figured out how to use it.... thank you

pwc101 · 12-26-2007, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommytomthms5

pwc101 yours worked after i figured out how to use it.... thank you

No problem