Hi folks,

I am trying to run a copy command and getting this error.

The issue is I do not know if there is just one file/multiple files at /tst location, So I am using *

If it has only 1 instance it is copying properly to target location, but in this case there are multiple files in source loc.(/tst), so all the cp commands failing

Any idea how to fix this


Copy Command:
cp -r /tst/*/002/"79159503.pdf" /stg/MPN_1_28262/"datasheet_AA.pdf"

Error:
cp: target `/stg/MPN_1_28262/datasheet_AA.pdf' is not a directory


Source loc:
ls -latr /tst/*/002/"79159503.pdf"

/tst/001/002/"79159503.pdf"
/tst/003/002/"79159503.pdf"

You're trying to move two files into one filename. Of course it can't do that, so what do you actually want it to do?

I am trying to copy it to target location,

In my source vault, I have 10 dirs example:
/tst/001
/tst/002
..
..
/tst/010

we might not know if there is a pdf file one instance in one of the location OR same file in multiple locations. All that I need to do is copy from source to target

cp -r /tst/*/002/"79159503.pdf" /stg/MPN_1_28262/"datasheet_AA.pdf"

So I was using *, and it is failing

Any ideas for better command

Thanks in advance

Once again, you're trying to move two files into one filename, which you can't do. So what do you actually want it to do?

You need to define what, in your mind, is the "correct" behavior. What do you want the end result to be? "I don't want it to throw an error" is not a valid answer, since what you're telling it to do is not allowable, it can't run without an error. You need to define your desired behavior before you or anybody else can possibly come up with a solution.

You can't move two files into one file, it won't work. Do you want to move one of them? Which one? Do you want to move both of them to different names? How do you want to name them? If you are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that the files are and always will be identical, then you can just grab the first one, but are you SURE this assumption will always hold? What if they're different? What do you want it to do?

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the response

Yes, both the files are identical and we can grab the first occurence

Then you can just do

Thank you, Will give a try

"You can't move two files into one file, it won't work. Do you want to move one of them? Which one? Do you want to move both of them to different names? How do you want to name them? If you are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that the files are and always will be identical, then you can just grab the first one, but are you SURE this assumption will always hold? What if they're different? What do you want it to do? "

If it is not sure that "the files are and always will be identical", is anyway to check it, if it is identical then copy one file (the first one), if not give some warning and option to copy source_file(s) to target_file_# (where # is 0, 1, 2 ...)

Thanks for your help,

Regards, Maria

Sure, you can use the exit status of "diff -q file1 file2" to check if they're the same, and then decide accordingly.

thanks, but it is manual if using diff -q file1 file2 . Is anyway using script to copy file (with wildcard *) and inform us whether it is different and the script is continued to copy the file1 if same, or copy file1 to target_0 and copy file2 to target_1

Regards, Maria

Sure, but you'll need to put in some effort of your own.

How would the command look if you didn't use wildcards and try to do exactly the same thing?

You'd get something like this:
And then you immediately see the problem, if you provide more than one file as "source", the "destination" _must_ be a directory.
So if you want to copy all occurrences of said file to that location, find would be your friend in this: