BASH: Interactive "cp" (and "mv") in a loop Post: 302504070

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers BASH: Interactive "cp" (and "mv") in a loop Post 302504070 by SilversleevesX on Sunday 13th of March 2011 01:00:40 PM

03-13-2011

Registered User

BASH: Interactive "cp" (and "mv") in a loop

Hi.

I have a copy-file script (and a move-file script) that I recently tried to make interactive. I tested the former on three files from a text list, and watched to see what would happen. As the cp command was in a while/do/done loop, there was no pause for input: it wrote the file from the list to the destination directory. Casually-speaking, it "barreled right through" the list as if the -i wasn't there.

Here's part of the copy-file script.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

while read 'line';
do
n=$(echo $line)
file=${n%,*}
dest=${n#*,}
if [[ "$dest" == "" ]]; then continue; fi
echo -e "Copying $file now."
cp -ipPv $file $dest

done<copylist.txt

I know the 'pPv' options are more or less unnecessary, particularly the capital 'P', but as I write and use many of my scripts both in Cygwin and GNOME, it seems more prudent to me to include them.

In a loop such as this, would I be better off preventing overwrite (and changes of mod date, file-length, etc to the file that ended up at the destination) to write in an if/then/fi that checked for the file in the destination before copying? Something like this?

Code:

if [ -e "$dest/$file" ]; then
echo -e "Do you want to overwrite $file? (y/n)"
read arPLy
if [[ "$arPLy" != "n" ]]; then
cp -pPv $file $dest
else
continue
fi
fi

Or is there a way to introduce (I hesitate to say "force") a pause in that loop at the "cp -i" stage?

Hope someone can help and soon.

BZT

SilversleevesX

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

starpkg

starpkg(1)						      General Commands Manual							starpkg(1)

NAME

       starpkg - convert a StarPlot data set to StarPlot file format

SYNOPSIS

       starpkg [ --dataset ] data-set [ --dest destination ]
       starpkg --recurse input-dir [ --dest destination ]

DESCRIPTION

       On  the	StarPlot web site are available some packages of data that include both an original data file from NASA, and also a  specification
       file.  These packages are referred to as "data sets", from which starconvert(1) can produce a data file in StarPlot format.   For  ease	of
       use, this should be done via the starpkg shell script.

USAGE

       Assuming  that data-set is a valid StarPlot data set (either in tar.gz format or a directory resulting from uncompressing the tar.gz file),
       the `starpkg --dataset' command converts it to a StarPlot-formatted data file.  Note that the `--dataset' flag is optional, and the name of
       the input data set may be specified without it.	In order to be a valid StarPlot data set, a directory or tar.gz file must contain at least
       a valid specification file whose name ends with `.spec' and a flat text data file named `catalog.dat'.

       If the `--dest' option is omitted, the default location of the output file is the first of the directories /usr/share/starplot, $PWD, $HOME
       in which the user has write permissions.  If `--dest' is omitted or destination is a directory, the name of the output file will by default
       be ${specfilename%.spec}.stars.	For instance, a data set containing gliese.3.spec will produce a file named gliese.3.stars.

       The `starpkg --recurse' form of the command executes the above action for every StarPlot data  set  contained  in  input-dir,  placing  the
       resulting  StarPlot data files to the directory destination.  (If the --dest option is omitted, the default destination directory is chosen
       as above.)  This form of the starpkg command is most useful when a new version of StarPlot has been installed and you  wish  to	regenerate
       all StarPlot data files from data sets using the new starconvert program.

OPTIONS

       --dataset, -s
	      Specify a directory or tar.gz file to use as a StarPlot data set.

       --dest, -d
	      Specify the file or directory in which to output StarPlot-format data files.

       --quiet, -q
	      Print only fatal errors to the terminal.

       --recurse, -r
	      Specify a directory in which to search for StarPlot data sets.

       --starconvert-option option
	      Pass  option  through  to starconvert.  If you wish to pass more than one option (or an option that takes a following argument), you
	      should give this flag multiple times, once for each starconvert option or argument.

       --verbose, -v
	      Print all starconvert output to the terminal.

SEE ALSO

       starplot(1), starconvert(1)

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 2000-2002 under the GNU GPL by Kevin B. McCarty <starplot@starplot.org>.  The StarPlot web page is at www.starplot.org.

								     Nov 2002								starpkg(1)