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--- pages:howtos:linuxunix:how_to_find_stuff [2023/01/07 13:36] – rokkitlawnchair
+++ pages:howtos:linuxunix:how_to_find_stuff [2023/03/08 16:31] (current) – [Find files newer than...] mischerh
@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 locate -e --regex "\.(h|cpp)$"
 </sxh>
+===== recursively find files with a specific suffix and copy them =====
+  * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15617016/copy-all-files-with-a-certain-extension-from-all-subdirectories
+  * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17334014/move-files-to-directories-based-on-extension
+Under unix, I want to copy all files with a certain extension (all excel files) from all subdirectories to another directory. I have the following command:
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+cp --parents `find -name \*.xls*` /target_directory/
+</sxh>
+The problems with this command are:
+  * It copies the directory structure as well, and I only want the files (so all files should end up in /target_directory/)
+  * It does not copy files with spaces in the filenames (which are quite a few)
+Any solutions for these problems?
+----
+''<nowiki>--parents</nowiki>'' is copying the directory structure, so you should get rid of that.
+The way you've written this, the find executes, and the output is put onto the command line such that cp can't distinguish between the spaces separating the filenames, and the spaces within the filename. It's better to do something like
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+$ find . -name \*.xls -exec cp {} newDir \;
+</sxh>
+in which cp is executed for each filename that find finds, and passed the filename correctly. Here's more info on this technique.
+Instead of all the above, you could use zsh and simply type
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+$ cp **/*.xls target_directory
+</sxh>
+zsh can expand wildcards to include subdirectories and makes this sort of thing very easy.
+<WRAP center round tip 60%>
+Bash 4.0+ and ksh93 also supports <nowiki>**.</nowiki> For bash, use shopt -s globstar to enable it. For ksh, it's set -G or set -o globstar
+</WRAP>
+That exec is technically less efficient than passing into xargs, which will do it all in as few cp calls as possible:
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find . -name '*.xls' -print0 | xargs -0 cp -t destdir
+</sxh>
+From all of the above, I came up with this version. This version also works for me in the mac recovery terminal.
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find ./ -name '*.xsl' -exec cp -prv '{}' '/path/to/targetDir/' ';'
+</sxh>
+It will look in the current directory and recursively in all of the sub directories for files with the xsl extension. It will copy them all to the target directory.
+cp flags are:
+  * p - preserve attributes of the file
+  * r - recursive
+  * v - verbose (shows you whats being copied)
+I had a similar problem. I solved it using:
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find dir_name '*.mp3' -exec cp -vuni '{}' "../dest_dir" ";"
+</sxh>
+The '{}' and ";" executes the copy on each file.
+I also had to do this myself. I did it via the --parents argument for cp:
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find SOURCEPATH -name filename*.txt -exec cp --parents {} DESTPATH \;
+</sxh>
+you may remove the --parents but there is a risk of collision if multiple files bear the same name.
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find [SOURCEPATH] -type f -name '[PATTERN]' |
+    while read P; do cp --parents "$P" [DEST]; done
+</sxh>
+In 2022 the zsh solution also works in Linux Bash:
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+cp **/*.extension /dest/dir
+</sxh>
+works as expected.
+===== Find files newer than... =====
+Thanks to liberanet - pablos - #kde =)
+> I use the following technique to find files:  1) cd 2) touch than_me 3) find . -newer than_me 4) "do the thing that needs doing" 5) repeat 3 and look for affected files.
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+cd && touch than_me
+</sxh>
+do whatever has to be done
+<sxh bash; gutter: false>
+find . -mount -newer than_me
+</sxh>
 ----
 ~~DISCUSSION~~