I'm new to UNIX and have got some of the basics down, but I've got a puzzle I'm having difficulty working out.

Scenario:

Have FILE_A.JPG in DIR_A

Need to copy FILE_A 200 times and rename it 200 different names. List of 200 names in NAME_FILE.TXT

After renaming 200 files, need to move each file into a specific directory based on file name.

EXAMPLE:

FILE is in CURRENT_DIR needs to move to DESTINATION_DIR

234546 is in DIR_A needs to move to DIR_B/6/46
498721 is in DIR_A needs to move to DIR_B/1/21
873489 is in DIR_A needs to move to DIR_B/9/89
459323 is in DIR_A needs to move to DIR_B/3/23

PUZZLE: How to copy & rename the 200 files and then move each file into the new destination directory?

Any recommendations for me?

I'm having trouble understanding exactly what you want... but I'll give it a shot...

cd DIR_A
for i in `cat NAME_FILE.TXT`; do dir=DIR_B/`echo $i|cut -c6`/`echo $i|cut -c5,6`; mkdir -p ../$dir; cp FILE_A.JPG ../$dir/$i;done

I have made the following assumptions:
- every file name in NAME_FILE.TXT has 6 characters
- the directory you want to create is the last charater / last 2 characters

let me know if those assumptions aren't correct...

Thank you for the attempt, and sorry if I wasn't very clear.

-The file names in NAME_FILE.TXT vary in character size from 4-10 characters.
-The destination directories already exist as you assumed 'character / last 2 characters'

How about this, then:
Although one liners are cool, I would do this with perl, it's just clearer

Thank you for the advice. I will give this a try. Perl...just something else I need to study. Thanks again!