Move the files to a specific folder in unix

Question

I have a script to move files of type .txt to a particular folder .It looks for the files in work folder and move it to completed folder. I would like to make the script generic i.e to enhance the script so that the scripts works not for just one particular folder but other similar folders as well. Example: If there is a .txt file in folder /tmp/swan/test/work and also in folder /tmp/swan/test11/work, the files should move to /tmp/swan/test/done and /tmp/swan/test11/done respectively. EDIT:Also, if there is a .txt file in a sub folder like /tmp/swan/test11/work/APX that should also move to /tmp/swan/test11/done

Below is the current script.

  #!/bin/bash

  MY_DIR=/tmp/swan

  cd $MY_DIR

  find .  -path "*work*"  -iname "*.txt" -type f -execdir mv '{}' /tmp/swan/test/done \;

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09 13:32:21Z

2

With -execdir, the mv command is executed in whatever directory the file is found in. Since you just want to move the file to a "sibling" directory, each command can use the same relative path ../done.

find . -path "*work*"  -iname "*.txt" -type f -execdir mv '{}' ../done \;

answered Sep 9, 2015 at 13:32

chepner

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4 Comments

Swanand Over a year ago

The script you gave works fine if its a sibling directory, but I have a .txt file in folder /tmp/swan/test11/work/APX and I want this file to be moved to /tmp/swan/test11/done as well . Sorry I missed this detail initially.

chepner Over a year ago

Are you using bash 4 or later, by any chance?

Swanand Over a year ago

I am using bash version 3.2.25 . With the script you provided ,it creates a .txt file in /tmp/swan/test11/work when I try to move a *.txt file from /tmp/swan/test11/work/APX instead of moving to the folder /tmp/swan/test11/done

chepner Over a year ago

No, I was just going to suggest a find-free solution if you were using bash 4.

Petr Skocik · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09 12:40:20Z

0

One way to do it:

Background:

$ tree
.
├── a
│   └── work
└── b
    └── work

Renaming:

find . -type f -name work -exec \
sh -c 'echo mv "$1" "$(dirname "$1")"/done' -- {} \;

Output:

mv ./a/work ./a/done
mv ./b/work ./b/done

You can remove the echo if it does what you want it to.

answered Sep 9, 2015 at 12:40

Petr Skocik

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Comments

Renaud Pacalet · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09 12:56:25Z

0

What about:

find . -path '*work/*.txt' -exec sh -c 'd=$(dirname $(dirname $1))/done; mkdir -p $d; mv $1 $d' _ {} \;

(also creates the target directory if it does not exist already).

answered Sep 9, 2015 at 12:56

Renaud Pacalet

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