Copying files and sub-directories of a directory except the directories named ".abc"

sri1025 · 07-30-2007, 04:55 AM

How to copy all the files and sub-directories of a directory except the directories named ".abc"?

Thank you!

khaan · 07-30-2007, 07:12 AM

You may perhaps copy everything recursively and then delete similary what you did not want:
cp -r srcPath destPath
rm -r `find destPath -name '.abc'`

But to avoid copying and then deleting (for example if ".abc" are large files), I don't know if there are easier solutions, but I would make a shell script. A once-usable version (which could be improved by handling parameters) would look like this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# use find to list all files from the source location
# and grep -v to remove those called ".abc"
# and store the list into a variable: 
flist=`find mySrc/path/ | grep -v '\<\.abc\>'`

# foreach item we want to copy:
for fname in $flist; do
    # we compute the corresponding destination path:
    destname=`echo " "$fname | sed 's/ mySrc\/path\// dest\/location\//'`
    if [ -d $flist ] ; then
        # if the item is a directory, we create it:
        mkdir $destname
    else
        # if not a directory, we copy it:
        cp $fname $dest
    fi
done

I put in blue what you may want to change (or use parameters instead of). Don't forget to escape with a backslash every slash and dot in the grep and sed commands as I did.
The "\<" and "\>" around "\.abc" just means that the name of the file or directories to skip is ".abc" and not just any name containing ".abc" somewhere inside.
Once your script done, you can launch it in the usual ways: either use sh myScriptName or make your script executable chmod u+x myScriptName (only once) and then launch it with ./myScriptName provided you are in its directory.
Also remember that if you use relative paths in the blue zones of the script, they will be relative to the path you are launching your script from.

sledgeas · 08-24-2010, 08:53 AM

Sorry for digging old grave. But did not find anything relevant elsewhere.

I have updated this script into a working and a universal one:

Code:

USAGE: sh ./selective-recursive-copy.sh SRCDIR DESTDIR EXCEPT_PATTERN

Where EXCEPT_PATTERN is a grep -E style pattern. I.e. to avoid copying directories, which contain abc and 123, use:
sh ./selective-recursive-copy.sh from/path to/my/path "abc|123"

Code:

#!/bin/sh

# use find to list all files from the source location
# and grep -Ev to remove those called EXCEPT_PATTERN (in 3rd cmdline argument)
# and store the list into a variable: 
flist=`find $1 | grep -Ev $3`

# dealing with slashes in paths:
src=$(echo $1 | sed 's/\//\\\//g')
dest=$(echo $2 | sed 's/\//\\\//g')

# dealing with spaces in files:
SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
# foreach item we want to copy:
for fname in $flist; do
    # we compute the corresponding destination path:
    destname=$(echo " "$fname | sed "s/ $src/$dest\//g")
    if [ -d $fname ] ; then
        # if the item is a directory, we create it:
        #echo "mkdir $destname"
        mkdir $destname
    else
        # if not a directory, we copy it:
#        echo "cp $fname $destname"
        cp $fname $destname
    fi
done
IFS=$SAVEIFS

Thanks to khaan for starting this!

-- 
sledge