Shell Programming and Scripting

I'm attempting to write a script that will look into a directory, discover all unique names, create directories for their prefix names and place the files inside. I do this now one by one with a simple script but I'd like to automate the process.

The directory would contain something like:
rv0050_v01.1000.dpx
rv0050_v01.1001.dpx
rv0050_v01.1002.dpx ...
rv0060_v01.1000.dpx
rv0060_v01.1001.dpx
rv0060_v01.1002.dpx ...
rv0090_v01.1000.dpx
rv0090_v01.1001.dpx
rv0090_v01.1002.dpx ...

So, I need to discover each unique name, create directories for only the prefix (rv0050,) and place the files inside.

Currently I use something like this:

Code:

...
dir=$1
   mkdir $dir ; mv $dir*.* $dir

Ideas?
Thanks

Code:

#! /bin/bash

for x in rv*
do
    dir=${x%%_*}
    [ ! -d $dir ] && mkdir $dir
    mv $x $dir/
done

If run as written it creates a dir called "rv*" and nothing else.
Shouldn't "rv*" be $1?

Thank you

No, a $1 takes the first input parameter.

What may be missing is some command to tell the script to list out the files?

Are you sure there are files that being with rv in the directory you are running the script form?

Looks like there are no files that match rv*. Your working directory may be some other than the one with the rv* files. Did you consider a cd to that directory?

Ah, this does work. I altered it for use with all sorts of files.

Code:

for x in $1*
do
    dir=${x%%_*}
    [ ! -d $dir ] && mkdir $dir
    mv $x $dir/
done

A more robust variant that can take the directory as parameter:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
d=_
mask="rv*$d*"
if [ -n "$1" ]
then
  cd "$1" || exit
fi
prevdir=""
for file in $mask
do
  [ -f "$file" ] || continue
  dir=${file%%$d*}
  [ "$dir" != "$prevdir" ] && mkdir -p "$dir"
  mv "$file" "$dir"/
done