Mass directory creation?

AeroEngy · #1 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

I have a couple thousand data files that all have to have there own directory named exactly the same as the file name. Then the file needs to be moved to that directory. For example files test1.mat, test2.mat, test3.mat in directory X need to have directories test1, test2, test3 created underneath X and then the corresponding files moved into there respective directory. Just for you information the file names are much more complicated than just test1 so typing them all out would be time consumming. Is there a way that I could write a script or something that could read the file names, create all the directories, and move all the files at once.

I am not very experienced in the Unix enviroment so any help would be appreciated. If it helps Matlab is installed on the Unix Machine.

becket · #2 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

with bash :

Code:

for file in `ls`
do 
mkdir -p $file 
mv $file $file/
done

reborg · #3 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

for file in *.mat ; do 
   directory=${file%.mat}
   mkdir $directory > /dev/null 2>&1
   mv $file $directory
done

AeroEngy · #4 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

Ok I tried both of your suggestions and neither worked exactly. There were a couple of problems with

Code:

for file in `ls`
do 
mkdir -p $file 
mv $file $file/
done

First, it tried to make a directory called ls. So I replace for file in 'ls' with for file in *.mat. Then it didn't work because it wouldn't let me create a directory with exactly the same name as an existing file name in the parent directory. So I modified it to the following which works almost perfectly.

Code:

for file in *.mat
do 
mkdir -p destination/$file
mv $file destination/$file
done

However, the problem with this is that it makes the directories with the file extensions on them. For example it creates the directory test1.mat in the destination directory instead of just test1. How can i get rid of the .mat in the directory name.

Thanks in advance.

reborg · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

You didn't say what problems you had with my original post, which does exactly what you originally requested for me.

This is the output from running my script on a test machine

Code:

# cat test.sh
#!/bin/ksh

for file in *.mat ; do
   directory=${file%.mat}
   mkdir $directory > /dev/null 2>&1
   mv $file $directory
done

# ls
1.mat     2.mat     3.mat     4.mat     5.mat     6.mat     7.mat     8.mat     9.mat     file.mat  test.sh
# ./test.sh
# find .
.
./2
./2/2.mat
./3
./3/3.mat
./4
./4/4.mat
./5
./5/5.mat
./6
./6/6.mat
./7
./7/7.mat
./8
./8/8.mat
./9
./9/9.mat
./file
./file/file.mat
./test.sh
./1
./1/1.mat

AeroEngy · #6 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005

Quote:

You didn't say what problems you had with my original post, which does exactly what you originally requested for me.

Sorry about that. Looking at your code again, I think I may have had a syntax error. I was getting a couple different error messages when I tired it earlier today but I can't remember them right now. I think one of them might have been unexpected '&'. I don't have a Unix machine at home so I will have to wait until tomorrow to try again. I appreciate your help and will let you know tomorrow how it turns out.

AeroEngy · #7 (**permalink**) 07-21-2005

I retried you script and it works perfectly. I just slightly moddified it so that it would create the new directories in a different path so that I wouldn't have to move them all later.

Thanks reborg

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