find and copy

[ovince]

hi

I would like to copy files that find command finds somehow. None of this does not work

find less/DH* more/DH* -type f -name "all*.dat" -exec cp "c:\users\"

find less/DH* more/DH* -type f -name "all*.dat" | cpio -pdumv "c:\users\"

how to do properly this?

thanks
oliver

 

[columb]

Firstly try 'man find', really you ought to RTFM before posting.

To run a command within find use

find less/DH* -type f -name "all*.dat" -exec cp {} "c:\users\"\;

Note that the -exec has the found file name represented by {} and an escaped semicolon (\ at the end of the command.
Note also that you cant have more than one path at the start so your script becomes

for dir in less/DH* more/DH*
do
  find $dir -type f -name "all*.dat" -exec cp {} "c:\users\" \;
done

And the next problem is the way in which Unix understands th e backslash. You need to either quote them with the single quote or escape them. Your code now becomes

for dir in less/DH* more/DH*
do
  find $dir -type f -name "all*.dat" -exec cp {} 'c:\users\' \;
done

or

for dir in less/DH* more/DH*
do
  find $dir -type f -name "all*.dat" -exec cp {} "c:\\users\\" \;
done

I assume from the very windows like path at the end you are using some form of Unix like shell on a Windows box. Welcome to the dark side of the force!

Ceci n'est pas une signature
Columb Healy

 

[ovince]

thanks Columb


I use Cygwin and I am very very new in Unix. I read manual every time befor posting but sometimes I can not understand everything so I post question here.

 

[p5wizard]

Note also that you can't have more than one path at the start so your script becomes

???

man page extract:

find Command

Purpose

       Finds files with a matching expression.

Syntax

       find [ -H | -L ] Path ... [ Expression ]

You can put in as many path specifiers in the find comamnd as you want (and the system/shell can handle)

True that with wildcards, the list of paths to examine can become too large for the shell's commandline buffer.


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[PHV]

you cant have more than one path
Really ? Columb, which flavor of find are you using ?

 

[columb]

Ooops...

I stand corrected

Ceci n'est pas une signature
Columb Healy