Copy all files with a certain extension from all subdirectories

140
votes

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:

cp --parents `find -name \*.xls*` /target_directory/

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?

5
bashunixcp
What about find... exec mv ? – fedorqui 'SO stop harming'
Possible duplicate of Move files to directories based on extension – jww
this question actually answered the question i came here to ask. thank you! – ingernet

5 Answers

221
votes

--parents 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

$ find . -name \*.xls -exec cp {} newDir \;

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

$ cp **/*.xls target_directory

zsh can expand wildcards to include subdirectories and makes this sort of thing very easy.

44
votes

From all of the above, I came up with this version. This version also works for me in the mac recovery terminal. 

find ./ -name '*.xsl' -exec cp -prv '{}' '/path/to/targetDir/' ';'

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)
11
votes

I had a similar problem. I solved it using:

find dir_name '*.mp3' -exec cp -vuni '{}' "../dest_dir" ";"

The '{}' and ";" executes the copy on each file.

4
votes

I also had to do this myself. I did it via the --parents argument for cp:

find SOURCEPATH -name filename*.txt -exec cp --parents {} DESTPATH \;
1
votes
find [SOURCEPATH] -type f -name '[PATTERN]' | 
    while read P; do cp --parents "$P" [DEST]; done

you may remove the --parents but there is a risk of collision if multiple files bear the same name.