[SOLVED] bash how mv */*.* /some/other/directory

porphyry5 · 08-03-2011, 08:01 PM

I have a directory containing about 150 sub-directories, each of which contains only files of various types. I need to get all those files together in a single directory without any of the subdirectories. Can it be done with any simple approach like "mv */*.*", or do I need to get a list of all the individual filepaths and feed that to mv?

AlucardZero · 08-03-2011, 08:29 PM

find /src/dir -exec mv '{}' /some/other/dir +;

crts · 08-03-2011, 08:36 PM

Hi,

try this:

Code:

find /path/to/dir -type f -exec mv -n '{}' /path/to/target \;

The -n option prevents mv to overwrite existing files in the target directory. If you still have files in one of the source directories then you will need a slightly more complicated approach and a naming convention for the files that have the same name.

porphyry5 · 08-03-2011, 10:51 PM

I thank both AlucardZero and crts for your help, but it seems that \; is the charm

Code:

g  find /home/g/x -exec mv '{}' /home/g/y +;
find: missing argument to `-exec'
g  find /home/g/x -type f -exec mv '{}' /home/g/y +;
find: missing argument to `-exec'
g  find /home/g/x -type f -exec mv '{}' /home/g/y \;
g

Many thanks.

MTK358 · 08-04-2011, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porphyry5

*.*

That won't work for getting only files and not directories.

Linux has no concept of file extensions, both files and directory names can freely contain dots (or not have any at all).

AlucardZero · 08-04-2011, 08:55 AM

oop. crts is right in that you want "-type f". And my syntax was slightly wrong, it should be \;.

crts · 08-04-2011, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

And my syntax was slightly wrong, it should be \;.

Hi AlucardZero,

your syntax is not wrong; at least the 'find' version (GNU 4.4.2) that I am using accepts it. Although the terminating ';' is not needed when you use '-exec' with a '+', it should not lead to an error if you use it anyway. At least not in bash. Bash will simply interpret it as a line terminator. So possible sources for the error messages can be a 'find' version that does not support '-exec ... +' or maybe executing 'find' in a non-bash terminal.