String substitution on find results inside exec/xargs

myndcraft · #1 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008

What I'm trying to do is perform a copy, well a ditto actually, on the results of a find command, but some inline string substitution needs to happen.

So if I run this code

Code:

find ./ -name "*.tif"

I get back these results.

.//1234567.tif
.//abcdefg.tif

Now the action from exec or xargs I want would be these two things....

ditto .//1234567.tif /some/path/1/2/3/
ditto .//abcdefg.tif /some/path/a/b/c/

So as you can see it's taking the first three characters from each found result and using those to construct a path.

Any ideas I'm sure this can be done easier in a actual script, but i need to keep this as an actual "one line" command.

Any ideas?

era · #2 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008

Code:

find . -name '*.tif' |
sed -e 's%\(.//*\)\(.\)\(.\)\(.\)\(.*\)%ditto \1\2\3\4\5 /some/path/\2/\3/\4/%'
| sh

It's a thin line between a one-liner and an "actual script".

myndcraft · #3 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008

Thanks era, works great! Time to spend some time with the sed docs though... I knew it could do it, but admittedly I'm not very familiar with it

More UNIX and Linux Forum Topics You Might Find Helpful
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
How to find a string inside files	yoavbe	Shell Programming and Scripting	12	05-05-2008 01:19 PM
MV files with xargs or -exec	malaymaru	Shell Programming and Scripting	4	04-28-2008 10:40 AM
joining command results, and substitution	ncatdesigner	Shell Programming and Scripting	6	04-17-2008 11:37 AM
Difference between xargs and exec	vibhor_agarwali	UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers	19	06-09-2005 07:54 AM
find \| xargs cat	asal_email	Shell Programming and Scripting	4	03-17-2005 12:16 AM

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:


	Powered by